Economic model 'transformation' needed: UN climate envoy

A dramatic transformation of the global economic model will be necessary if the world truly wants to tackle the problem of climate change, a top UN envoy said Friday.

"We need bold actions," insisted Luis Alfonso de Alba, who was appointed late last year to prepare an ambitious climate summit in New York in September.

In an interview with AFP in Geneva Friday, he stressed that climate change should not be merely considered an environmental problem.

"We are talking about a transformation of the economic model that is going to be needed to achieve the results we need," he said.

The September 23 summit at the United Nations is billed as the first major stocktaking gathering of world leaders on climate change since the Paris agreement was reached in 2015.

The event follows a string of reports containing dire predictions about the future of the planet as carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise, pushing targets set out under the Paris accord further out of reach.

UN Secretary-General ...