What you need to know
• The climate change conference that begins Monday in Paris is sponsored by the United Nations. Representatives of more than 190 nations will discuss a new international deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
• Negotiators started work on Sunday, but the summit officially opens Monday and continues through Dec. 11.
• More than 140 world leaders are scheduled to speak on the opening day, including President Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Britain's Prince Charles.
• Most events will be in Le Bourget, outside Paris. About 2,800 police and soldiers will provide security. French authorities canceled plans for major protest marches because of concerns about security.
• The U.N. hopes participants will agree on a broad accord aimed at limiting global warming from reaching levels at which the world would see the most severe effects of climate change.
• These efforts have been ongoing since a 1992 summit in Brazil, and annual meetings have been held since 1995. The Kyoto summit in 1997 resulted in a legally binding deal to cut emissions, but it applied only to developed countries. The Copenhagen summit in 2009 was the last time that world leaders met with the goal of cutting emissions, but that meeting ended in acrimony.
• Key elements of a deal in Paris could include national pledges to cut emissions, a long-term target for reductions and a framework for measuring whether countries fulfill those promises. But a deal is not certain.
News services
