BANGKOK: The United States, the world’s top belcher of greenhouse gas emissions, is “the biggest culprit” of climate change, the WWF said on Thursday, urging Washington to take swift action against global warming.

“They are the biggest culprit and they are the biggest offender of climate,” said Stephan Singer, head of the environmental group WWF’s climate change policy unit. “The United States should take climate change seriously,” Singer told reporters in Bangkok, where scientists around the world are attending the week-long session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN’s leading authority on global warming.

While accusing the US of “ignoring science” on global warming, the WWF still urged Washington to lead the world in combating climate change. “What’s happening in the United States is important because it is still the largest emitter” of greenhouse gas, said Hans Verolme, director of WWF’s global climate change programme.—AFP