In Copenhagen, Denmark, the United Nations Climate Change Conference opened this week. Around fifteen thousand delegates and observers from nearly two hundred countries are there. Some call it "the last best chance" for an agreement to fight climate change.
Yvo de Boer is the top climate official at the United Nations.
YVO DE BOER: "The time for formal statements is over. The time for restating well known positions is past. The time has come to reach out to each other. I urge you to build on your achievements, take up the work that has already been done and turn it into real action."
But there are questions about how much can be done, and how an agreement would be put into action.
The twelve-day conference ends next Friday. Late next week, leaders from more than one hundred countries are expected at the talks, including President Obama.
Delegates hope to set new targets to reduce greenhouse gases -- the pollution blamed for trapping extra heat in the atmosphere. An existing agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, ends in two thousand twelve. Many countries have offered new proposals for cuts, including the United States and China.
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