Today, marks the opening in Paris of the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP). Some 195 delegations are to be present with 150 heads of state expected to attend.

According to the organizing committee, the objective of the 2015 conference is to achieve, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, a binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.

Pope Francis published an encyclical called Laudato si’ intended, in part, to influence the conference. The encyclical calls for action against climate change.

The International Trade Union Confederation has called for the goal to be « zero carbon, zero poverty », and the general secretary Sharan Burrow has repeated that there are « no jobs on a dead planet ».  (Wikipedia and others)