On the bright side, Huntsman has absolutely zero shot of securing the Republican nomination.

(The Hill) — GOP White House hopeful Jon Huntsman is sticking by his view that climate change is under way, even while reversing his past embrace of cap-and-trade.

Time magazine has posted excerpts from interviews with the former Utah governor — who recently left his job as President Obama’s ambassador to China — conducted for a recent profile.

Asked about his views on climate change, Huntsman replied:

This is an issue that ought to be answered by the scientific community; I’m not a meteorologist. All I know is 90 percent of the scientists say climate change is occurring. If 90 percent of the oncological community said something was causing cancer we’d listen to them. I respect science and the professionals behind the science so I tend to think it’s better left to the science community — though we can debate what that means for the energy and transportation sectors.

Huntsman embraced cap-and-trade when he was governor of Utah, signing on in 2007 to a program among Western states and Canadian provinces called theWestern Climate Initiative aimed at cutting regional greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020.