One week before the start of the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), held talks in Berlin with Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen. The talks focussed on the upcoming negotiations in Copenhagen and the environmental reform of the United Nations.
"Executive Director Steiner and I agree that Copenhagen must be a success. One thing is clear: ambitious climate protection pays off. Measures introduced at some future point will be considerably more costly," emphasised Minister Röttgen.
During the talks Federal Environment Minister Röttgen made clear that the environmental activities of the United Nations system needed to be much better organised. He thanked Achim Steiner for the drastic improvements he had introduced at UNEP in Nairobi but stressed that only a World Environment Organisation could tackle the challenges of the decades to come.