Former US Secretary of State John Kerry believes the US will "come back" to the Paris climate accord after President Donald Trump's decision in June to withdraw from the agreement.

Speaking to CNN at the One Planet Summit in Paris on Tuesday, Kerry said the US would "continue to be a leader in dealing with climate change."

The official withdrawal doesn't take place until after the election of 2020," Kerry said before adding, "the United States will come back."

Trump's decision to withdraw made the US the lone holdout to the non-binding treaty, following the subsequent signing-on by Nicaragua and Syria, the only two countries to have initially not signed. Nearly 200 countries joined the pact in 2015.

Read the full article by Melissa Bell and James Masters about the Paris climate accord from CNN