The U.N. Climate Change Conference opened Monday in Warsaw, Poland with a call to reach a new agreement to reduce climate altering greenhouse-gas emissions during what is seen as a pivotal point in the negotiating process. "We must win the Warsaw opportunity," Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told participants at the session. Figueres noted that "the world is ready" and there is much global enthusiasm for climate action, not only for the environment but also for security, energy, economic, and governance reasons. "A new universal climate agreement is within our reach," Figueres said. "Parties can lead the momentum for change and move together towards success in 2015." The UNFCCC is an international treaty which considers what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with temperature increases. The two-week conference brings together the 195 parties to the UNFCCC—the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol—to draft a universal U.N.-supported treaty on climate change by 2015. The treaty would enter force in 2020.
