The United Nations said Monday that 2017 will be among the hottest years on record. The announcement came as nearly 200 countries gathered in Bonn, Germany, for the beginning of this year’s U.N. climate talks. This is the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas.

Petteri Taalas: “If we are successful in implementation of Paris Agreement around 2060s, we could see a phaseout of this. But if not, of course, this negative trend will continue even for thousands of years, so the lifetime of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is very long. So that’s why we have to turn this emission evolution during the coming couple of decades to be able to see this phaseout. So that’s why these COP meetings are so critical at the moment.”