A former UN chief is warning the world has no more than 18 months to address climate change in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The United Nation's lead negotiator for the Paris Agreement, Christiana Figueres, has told RNZ, before the pandemic, the world had up to a decade to deal with climate change.
Now she says the trillions being spent on the global economy's recovery represent a last chance to turn away from economic models with dangerously high emission levels.
She made the comments in a new RNZ podcast called After the Virus.
RNZ's Guyon Espiner is hosting the series and filed this report.