Simple answer, Europeans are greedy and VAG more so, they were happy to sacrifice the climate for financial gain with the whole emissions cheating, but not limited to VAG, most European brands were at it (some of the Japanese too). The greed is astounding, especially when you factor in the various government incentives the European manufacturers were collecting from many different countries and to top it all off, the greed is visible when VAG prove they have better battery technology that they use in the premium brands of Porsche and Audi but keep that technology away from affordable cars.
Humanity is only humanity when all are treated the same regardless of their skin tone, religious beliefs and geography!