Performers wearing masks of world leaders -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel, China's President Xi Jinping, US President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande -- gather for breakfast in Paris.
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.
Here is your 10-point cheat-sheet to the big environment story:
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 July, an international team of scientists, analysts, financial and military risk experts, warned that the food and water shortages will boost conflict over resources, mass migration and state failure.
Even sophisticated governments may be unable to deal with the fallouts, said the report -- titled "Climate Change, a Risk Assessment".
Last year, 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.
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.
The US never accepted the Kyoto protocol. Several other countries who signed the agreement also pulled out. Since then, developed nations have taken few steps to significantly cut carbon emissions.
India says the developed countries must bear a higher burden than developing countries to contain climate change, because they have been mainly responsible for pollution over the last 200-odd years.
But the US doesn't agree. It wants India and China to cut emissions sharply. China has set a goal for peaking its emissions by 2030.
India, whose emission last year was roughly half of China's, contends that clubbing the two countries and expecting commitments on an equal platform is unfair.
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