WASHINGTON - Donald Trump's choice to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that climate change is real, breaking with both the president-elect and his own past statements.

Pressed by Democrats at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said he disagreed with Trump's past statements that global warming is a hoax created by the Chinese to harm the economic competitiveness of the United States.

Pruitt has previously cast doubt on the extensive body of scientific evidence showing that the planet is warming and that man-made carbon emissions are to blame. In a 2016 opinion article, Pruitt suggested that the debate over global warming "is far from settled."

Pruitt's comments came less than an hour after federal scientists affirmed that 2016 was officially the hottest year in recorded history.