Energy Secretary Rick Perry Rick PerryEnergy secretary questions consensus that humans cause climate change OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Democrats push resolution to battle climate change, sluggish economy and racial injustice | Senators reach compromise on greenhouse gas amendment stalling energy bill | Trump courts Florida voters with offshore drilling moratorium OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Trump signs major conservation bill into law | Senate votes to confirm Energy's No. 2 official | Trump Jr. expresses opposition to Pebble Mine project MORE said Monday that carbon dioxide emissions are not the “primary control knob” behind climate change, a statement at odds with nearly every major climate change researcher inside and outside the federal government.

Asked by CNBC if he believes carbon dioxide is “the primary control knob for the temperature of the Earth and for climate,” Perry said no, and that “most likely the primary control knob is the ocean waters and this environment we live in.”

“This shouldn’t be a debate about is the climate changing, is man having an affect on it? Yeah, we are,” Perry said. “The question should be, just how much and what are the policy changes that we need to make to affect that?”

ADVERTISEMENT

Federal scientists — including researchers at NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — as well as international and private-sector researchers have concluded that increasing greenhouse gas emissions, driven by human activity such as burning fossil fuels, is the leading cause of climate change around the globe.

Perry’s department is charged, in part, with researching technologies designed to green the energy sector, a leading producer of emissions.

When asked about climate change during his confirmation hearing in January, Perry said that “the climate is changing” but that he believes “some of it is naturally occurring, but some of it is also caused by manmade activity.”

“This idea that the science is absolutely settled and if you don’t believe it’s settled, then you are somehow another Neanderthal, that is so inappropriate from my perspective,” he said on Monday on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

“If you’re going to be a wise, intellectually engaged person, being a skeptic about some of these issue is quite alright.”

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Edward (Scott) Scott PruittJuan Williams: Swamp creature at the White House Science protections must be enforceable Conspicuous by their absence from the Republican Convention MORE said on the same CNBC show in March that he “does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor” to climate change.