The 2012 UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP18/CMP8 (18th session of the Conference of the Parties and 8th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol), opened today in Doha, Qatar, and will run through 7 December.
On the podium, from left: Richard Kinley, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC; Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Minister for International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa and outgoing President of the COP; and June Budhooram, COP Secretary.