The United States must step up its efforts to combat climate change, Germany’s environment minister said Monday, accusing the Obama administration of lacking ambition in its environmental goals.
“Even under Barack Obama, the US has insufficient climate protection goals, at least as far as the international community is concerned,” Sigmar Gabriel told Berlin radio station RBB.
Gabriel called on Obama to commit to “significantly more ambitious targets than has so far been the case.”
Washington’s top climate negotiator Todd Stern said Sunday the Obama administration was “powerfully and fervently engaged” in UN talks to forge a global climate treaty.
But the United States cannot “ride in on a white horse and make it all work,” Stern told delegates at the 11-day United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) technical meeting in Bonn.