After months of preparation and see-saw developments, the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference [1] officially starts Monday in Copenhagen.

CopenhagenFrom December 7-18, the world's leaders -- including President Barack Obama [2] -- will work to establish a new global treaty [3] on climate change.

Several big questions are expected to dominate the discussion:

• Will specific emissions targets [4] be set?
• How should developed nations, which have historically emitted most of the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, act compared with developing nations [5] ?
• How will recent questions [6] about the alleged suppression of climate-change research affect the negotiations?

The challenges are big but the consequences of inaction could be far larger. 

Please check back at www.nylcv.org for frequent updates on the Copenhagen summit. We'll also bring you a summary of the week's progress in our EcoPolitics [6] digest.