Thousands of scientists and government officials from 187 countries met in Bali, Indonesia, last week to kick off the United Nations Climate Change Conference. This is the largest global-warming conference ever held.
The main goal of the two-week meeting is to develop a replacement for an international treaty called the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The treaty calls for limits on emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
The United Nations hopes this meeting in Bali will lead to an even stronger global commitment to climate change by 2009. "We need to do something now," says Rizaldi Boer, an Indonesian climatologist.