This year, the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) will be held in Paris from 30 November to 11 December 2015. The aim of the  conference is to reach a universal, legally binding agreement on climate change to keep global warming below 2°C by boosting the transition towards resilient, low-carbon societies and economies.

To achieve this, the agreement will concentrate on climate change mitigation and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to avoid a 2°C increase. It will also focus on how societies most in need can be assisted to adapt to changes in climate. A significant part of the responsibility lies with industrialized countries, which have historically emitted more greenhouse gases than other countries.

COP21 is also the 11th meeting of the Parties (CMP11) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. This protocol was an international treaty that committed state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the premise that global warming was a fact, caused by human-produced CO2 emission. According to the protocol, the developed countries had to reach targets to reduce their emissions.

Last year’s Conference of the Parties (COP20), held in Lima, hosted negotiations for the present global climate change agreement. This year’s conference is expected to attract close to 50,000 participants including 25,000 official delegates from government, intergovernmental organizations, UN agencies, NGOs and civil society.

UNESCO's Pavilion at COP21 is situated in the civil society area of the COP venue at Le Bourget, Paris. Saturday the 5th of december will be devoted to UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage Sites and climate change, with presentations by site and reserve managers, dialogues with experts and exchanges with the public.