It is hard to keep up with the pace of change in the mind of Donald Trump.

Just hours after announcing he was not going to pursue an investigation of Hillary Clinton over her use of a personal email server, he indicated another important U-turn - this time in regard to climate.

During the campaign, Mr Trump has suggested climate change was nothing more than a “hoax”, and that the so-called myth may have been started by the Chinese.

However, in a conversation with journalists from the New York Times on Tuesday, he indicated he had rethought the matter.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke – filled with the carbon that is driving climate change – drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. “Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals,” says the photographer. “Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow.” Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a “public health emergency”. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

Asked if thought human activity was linked to climate change; he responded: “I think there is some connectivity. Some, something. It depends on how much.”

He also said he would keep an open mind on whether he would pull the US out of a landmark international climate change deal.

During his presidential campaign, Mr Trump repeatedly said he would withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord. But on Tuesday, at a meeting with reporters that itself experienced a U-turn in regard to whether or not it would even take place, he said: “I’m looking at it very closely. I have an open mind to it.”

Mr Trump, who has been holed up for days in Trump Tower in New York as he puts together a team for his administration, told the reporters that he was also thinking about climate change in regard to American competitiveness and “how much it will cost our companies”.

He also said he thought clean energy was “very important”.

Travis Nichols, a spokesman for Greenpeace, told The Independent that regardless of what Mr Trump had said to the newspaper, the fact he had appointed a series of climate change deniers and oil industry lobbyists to his transition team indicated his administration would still be in “climate denial”.

Mr Trump had called climate change a hoax (AP)

Mr Trump’s notoriety as a climate change denier dates back to 2012 when he said in a tweet: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.”

During the election campaign, he positioned himself as a defender of traditional industries, such as coal mining, and mocked Hillary Clinton’s talk of the need to invest in alternative energy.

Ms Clinton poked fun at Mr Trump’s position when she spoke on the campaign trail.