Poland's Minister of Climate Michał Kurtyka on Monday officially handed over the presidency of the United Nations climate conference to Chile as world leaders descended on Madrid for the opening of the talks.
The two-week "Conference of the Parties", or COP, as it is known, comes as extreme weather events around are being linked to manmade global warming, putting pressure on the summit to strengthen the implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement on limiting the rise in temperature.
Cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases - mostly from burning carbon-based fossil fuels - that have been agreed so far under the Paris deal are not enough to limit temperature rises to a goal of between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius (2.7-3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
Many countries are not even meeting those commitments, and political will is lacking, U.N. Chief Antonio Guterres warned on the eve of the summit.
President Donald Trump for his part has started withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement, while the deforestation of the Amazon basin - a crucial carbon reservoir - is accelerating and China has tilted back towards building more coal-fired power plants.
Seventy countries have committed to a goal of "carbon neutrality" or "climate neutrality" by 2050.
This means they would balance out greenhouse emissions, for instance through carbon capture technology or by planting trees.
Last year's U.N. climate summit in Poland yielded a framework for reporting and monitoring emissions pledges and updating plans for further cuts. But sticking points remain, not least over an article on how to put a price on emissions, and so allow them to be traded.
The summit runs until Decemebr 13.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters