The much-awaited Paris climate summit is to begin on Monday. The climate change conference will see all the world leaders coming together to take a mutual stand on prevention of rapid deterioration of global climate. If not taken an appropriate decision to curb the change now, it will have disastrous consequences in the future.

What does COP 21 stand for?

You might have noticed that COP21 does not seem like an appropriate abbreviation fro the Paris Climate Change summit. That is because it is not. COP21 stands for Conference of the Parties and the '21' signifies the 21st meeting of the global climate conference. The conference is being held in Le Bourget,France and will continue till 11 December.

COP21 is an annual meeting of 195 countries which constitute the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.The meetings have been regularly held ever since the year 1995. The meeting tracks the world's progress in dealing with issues like global warming and climate change.

Goal of the meeting:

The main objective of the conference is to reach a decision to restrict and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit the global temperature till 2 degree celsius above pre-industrial levels. Priority of the conference would be to come to a uniform and legal agreement with the leaders of the nations involved.

Scientists estimate that if the world warms by more than 2 C on average above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century, the effects of climate change will become catastrophic and irreversible. Adverse effects of climate change will be witnessed like severe and frequent droughts and flooding of the cities in the coastal area because of the rise in sea-level.

A 2 C limit has long been the goal of UN climate conferences, and current pledges from all countries are estimated to lead to warming of 2.7 C to 3 C, although the proposed deal has a provision for increased emissions cuts in future.

What is Kyoto Protocol?

Kyoto Potocol is a resolution which was reached in a climate conference in Japan in the year 1997 which set particular targets for carbon emission. In the 2009 meeting in Copenhagen, it was decided that the global world leaders would give a sum of $100 billion to the developing countries in order to help them in reducing their carbon emission. However, the United States never agreed to or accepted the Kyoto protocol and gradually several other countries who had signed the agreement initially later pulled out of it.

The global carbon emissions which were recorded last year have been marked as the highest ever. China is considered as the biggest contributor to pollution followed by United States, European Union, India, Russia and Japan.

Climate action plans of poorest nations to cost $1 trillion

According to the researchers, t world's 48 poorest countries will need to find around a trillion dollars between 2020 and 2030 to achieve their plans to tackle climate change - and those plans should be a priority for international funding.

Estimates based on plans submitted by the least-developed countries toward a new UN deal to curb global warming show they will cost some $93 billion a year from 2020, when an agreement expected to be ironed out in Paris over the next two weeks is due to take effect. That includes $53.8 billion annually to reduce emissions and $39.9 billion to deal with more extreme weather and rising seas, according to a report from the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development.

The least-developed countries - from Ethiopia to Zambia, and Yemen and Pacific island nations - are home to some of the poorest communities who are suffering the worst impacts of intensifying droughts, floods, storms and crumbling coastlines. Yet they produce just a tiny fraction of the planet-warming gases that drive climate change.

What is India's stand:

India has said that the developed countries should bear more burden than the developing countries as they are the main contributors of pollution over the last 200 years. However, United States has a different opinion, US instead wants China and India to cus greenhouse gas emissions by a huge rate.

India although has a problem with such a demand as its emissions stood almost at almost of China's emissions last year. India thinks that combining the two countries and seeking committiments from them on an equal platform is not fair.

Commenting on the climate talks, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar had said that India expects an "equitable and just" climate agreement in Paris. He also said that he does not want the Paris summit to be a disappointment like the Copenhagen summit which people have now termed as "flopenhagen".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Barack Obama, China's President Xi Jinping, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders are attending the opening ceremony of the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) tasked with reaching the first truly universal climate pact.