A crucial United Nations (UN) climate conference has opened in Poland, with representatives from 200 countries in attendance.
The 24th session of the UN Climate Change Conference, or COP24, kicked off in the city of Katowice on Sunday.
Representatives of countries most threatened by climate change — including by rising sea levels or droughts — are expected to use the platform to persuade others to take more responsibility in the climate change fight.
At-risk nations include Honduras, Nigeria, and Bangladesh, whose presidents are expected at the forum.
One of the key disputes at the conference is financing the fight against climate change and bringing about industrial changes toward slowing global warming.
At the same time, countries like the host Poland, which is heavily reliant on energy from coal, will be pushing their own agenda: a “just transition” from fossil fuels that critics say could allow it to continue polluting for decades.
In December 2015, world countries adopted the Paris Climate Accord — a landmark deal to tackle climate change — following high-level talks.
But US President Donald Trump later unilaterally withdrew America from that deal. Trump has long questioned the factuality of climate change altogether. He has called it a “hoax” despite its basis in pure science.
The Paris agreement, to which many world countries are still committed, aims to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2C over the next few decades.
The 24th UN Climate Change Conference will end on December 14.
