Delegates from nearly 200 nations began two weeks of talks to tackle deep political divisions at the most important United Nations meeting on global warming since the landmark 2015 Paris deal to shift away from fossil fuels.

Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama declared the UN climate summit open yesterday and handed over the presidency of the talks to Michal Kurtyka, Poland’s deputy environment minister.

The COP24 climate summit will see nations try to agree on ways of implementing the promises they made in the 2015 Paris treaty to limit temperature rises to avert runaway global warming.

Environment Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan is leading the Indian delegation at the conference. The government has said that the conference is crucial for India and the country is committed to fighting climate change constructively.

Talking to AIR, Environment Secretary CK Mishra said, The CoP-24 is extremely important for us and also for the world. We will also expect that our concern of climate justice which our Prime Minister has been reiterating is taken care of.

In our negotiations, we will try and touch on issues of differentiation, which is our concern, on issues of finance, on issues of adaptation and loss and damages. But we will play a very constructive role in trying to see that the world comes to an agreement at CoP-24 at Katowice.