21st United Nations Conference of the Parties, or COP21 begins in Paris,France Today Monday Nov 30,2015

The Paris climate change conference also known as Conference of Parties (CoP-21) is set to kick of on Monday Nov 30,2015 in Paris and will go on till December 11,2015

COP 21

COP stands for Conference of the Parties. It refers to the countries that have signed the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The COP in Paris is the 21st such conference.

In numbers

12: Number of days the talks will be on; November 30 to December 11.

196: A total of 195 countries plus the European Union will gather at Le Bourget, a suburb of Paris.

120,000 police and soldiers: There is an unprecedented security lockdown in the wake of the Nov 13 terrorist attacks in Paris.

40,000: No of officials expected to attend

The 21st United Nations Conference of the Parties, or COP21, which will begin in Paris today, aims to unite around 150 nations for a single agreement on tackling climate change.

The idea is 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 towards cleaner energies such as wind or solar power.

In 1997, Kyoto Protocol -- a resolution formed after a climate conference in Japan -- set binding targets for carbon emission.

In 2009, the COP15 in Copenhagen decided that up to $100 billion will have to be given in aid to help developing countries to reach their emissions goals by 2020.

Global warming has started since the mid-19th Century, when industrial-scale emissions began

Now scientists say even a 2 degrees Celsius rise in global temperature will mean faster melting of glaciers and polar ice caps and a corresponding rise in sea level that will gobble up land. Droughts will be longer and more frequent, and shortage of drinking water will be acute.

In 2014 the global carbon emissions were the highest ever. China is considered the biggest polluter, followed by the US, the European Union, India, Russia and Japan.