All through the Autumn of 2009, governments, newspapers and news broadcasters were reporting about an important conference. The conference was about climate change and took place in Copenhagen. It was led by the United Nations.

Important people from the 192 United Nations Member States went to the conference. They tried to agree about what they should do about climate change.

The conferences have been held every year in December, but the meeting place changes each year.

See if you can find out where all the climate change conferences have taken place in the world by using the map below.

Quiz

Let's see how much do you already know about climate change!

Before finding out more about the conferences, why not take the quiz to see how much you already know about climate change? Good luck!

What is climate change?

The climate of a country is the general kind of weather it gets. Scientists look at weather patterns to see if there are changes in temperature or rainfall and if extreme events occur like flooding. Scientists are worried that we (humans) are affecting the temperature of the earth which in turn is causing climate change.

Scientists agree that waste gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are to blame for causing a temperature rise. Carbon dioxide and methane occur naturally in the world’s atmosphere, but when the balance of these gases is too much damage can happen to the world’s atmosphere. This is called the greenhouse effect. This is what causes climate change.