UNEP head says Europe complacent on climate change

BERLIN (Reuters) – European nations are not doing enough to fight climate change and should show more leadership before they criticize the United States and Asia, the head of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) said on Saturday.

Achim Steiner said in an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper that climate change has been caused primarily by carbon dioxide emissions from Western industrialized nations and it was thus their responsibility to lead the fight against it.


He said the United States and Asia were now moving faster in the fight against climate change than Europe, which he said has grown complacent.

“The Americans and Asians are catching up quickly and are becoming strong business competitors (with green technologies),” Steiner said, in excerpts of the interview released ahead of Sunday’s publication.

Reuters