Paris to Host Decisive COP21 Climate Talks

On Monday, 150 world leaders and heads of state gathered in Paris, France for the start of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21). The summit is expected to produce a landmark agreement that will significantly reduce global carbon emissions, and in turn, limit global warming to 2˚ Celsius or less, the “number one priority of the conference.” In the lead up to Monday’s meeting, world leaders, including Presidents Barack Obama (U.S.) and François Hollande (France), have been “trying to show off their green credentials,” visiting Alaska and Iceland, respectively, earlier this year. Both observed the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels and melting glaciers, leading President Hollande to remark that “we cannot become spectators of our own demise.” With China and the United States comprising the top two global polluters, both nations say they are “determined to achieve in Paris what they failed [to achieve] in Copenhagen in 2009.” As this video from AFP News reveals, however, climate change does not affect China, France and the U.S alone, but is a transnational issue that will require concrete and collaborative action between all 150 participating nations.