Following climate talks in Minneapolis last month, the University of Minnesota sent a 10-person delegation to Paris to join thousands of others in discussing global climate change.

 

In the Paris suburb of Le Bourget, France, leaders and participants from more than 190 countries are coming together for two weeks at the conference, called COP21, to address the problem.

 

Included in the University’s delegation are Jessica Hellman, the director of the Institute on the Environment, and Ellen Anderson, the Energy Transition Lab’s director.

 

The goal of the talks is to reach a concise agreement that will guide 200 nations in reducing fossil fuel use and other factors contributing to global warming.

 

Climate experts say to meet the goal, carbon emissions have to be decreased by 40 to 70 percent by 2050.

 

An increase in global temperatures of more than 3.6 degrees would have disastrous effects on the world, such as more extreme weather events, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 

 

Governments across the world have already created their own plan to reduce emissions. Late last month, 170 countries published their plans, representing 93 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.