The COP15 conference is the 15th Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is co-organized by the Danish Government. The conference will run for two weeks from December 7-18.

The climate change conference is the deadline for thrashing out a plan to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, with the aim of decreasing global warming. It is the latest in a series of talks that trace their origins to the 1992 Earth summit in Rio.

The process leading to Copenhagen was launched in Bali, December 2007, when all parties agreed on the Bali Action Plan -- a two-year process leading to an agreed outcome on climate change action in Copenhagen. The COP conferences have been held in all parts of the world. The first conference was held in Berlin in 1995.

(China.org.cn December 4, 2009)