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World city and climate change experts said cities and other levels of government were defying Mr Trump.

Kevin Austin, deputy chief executive of the C40 cities network, said large economies such as California and New York City were still acting on emissions, regardless of national policy.

“There’s an unstoppable movement here and there is no alternative,” he told the Eco­city 2017 World Summit.

Mr Trump withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement last month, as well as taking other measures to counter environmental action. Mr Austin said although Mr Trump said he represented the people of Pittsburgh, not Paris, the mayors of those cities and others reaffirmed their commitment to action on climate change.

John Thwaites, former deputy premier and professorial fellow at Monash University, said Mr Trump’s actions, such as scrubbing climate change from the Environmental Protection Agency, were “the modern-day equivalent of book burning”.

Debra Roberts, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group, said cities had to lead the way on climate action. “We need an urban revolution because we’re fiddling while Rome burns,” she said.

The conference, at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, continues until Friday.