"A 2015 global pact for fighting climate change will benefit in some ways at least if U.S. President Donald Trump carries out a threat to pull out, backers say, in a shift from gloom about the fate of a deal that took two decades to negotiate.

The Paris Agreement requires consensus for all decisions, meaning the withdrawal of a recalcitrant United States would make it easier for emitters such as China and the European Union to design details of a trillion-dollar shift from fossil fuels.

Trump has called man-made climate change a hoax and made a so-far unfulfilled campaign pledge to "cancel" the agreement, saying he wants to promote the domestic fossil fuel industry."

Alister Doyle reports for Reuters March 27, 2017. [2]