Paris will host more than 140 world leaders and negotiators from 196 countries on Monday for crucial climate talks aimed at securing a long-term deal to slow man-made global warming.
Negotiators at the 21st United Nations Conference of the Parties, or COP21, will begin crafting a deal to cap the rate of global warming at 2 degrees Celsius — compared to the current 2.5 to 3.76 degrees Celsius.
This will be done by, among other things, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and shifting toward cleaner energies such as wind and solar power, NDTV reported.
If left unchecked, global warming will lead to extreme weather conditions, not to mention food and water shortages which experts warn will boost conflict over resources, mass migration and even state failure.
While the world’s governments have already committed to reducing emissions, they have yet to agree on how to meet their goals.
Every year since 1992 the Conference of the Parties has taken place with negotiators trying to put together a practical plan of action, the BBC reported. This year’s COP21 in Paris is the last chance for this process. Negotiators agreed in 2011 that a deal had to be done by the end of 2015.
The event, which runs until December 11, is under extra-high security after devastating terrorist attacks killed 130 people around Paris earlier this month. On Sunday, thousands of people around the world, from Sydney to Berlin, took to the streets in one of the biggest global days of climate change activism to put pressure on world leaders to unite in fighting global warming at the Paris summit.
