The hot topic of climate change will get hotter at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, from Dec. 7 through Dec. 18.World leaders have met annually at the Conferences of Parties since 1995 to discuss the climate change issue. This year, on Dec. 5 and 6, there will also be a Conference of Youth, where more than 500 youths from across the world will gather at the University of Copenhagen to talk about the issue and what their generation can do.The Sierra Student Coalition selected LSU graduate Rachel Guillory to serve as a youth delegate at both conferences.”I am a youth delegate representing the youth of the Sierra Club and the youth of the country,” said Guillory, international studies and German graduate. “I am supposed to represent our generation from the U.S. and try to make sure the negotiations are actually productive and  fair globally.”With the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which set carbon emissions targets for industrialized countries, about to expire in 2012, global leaders will meet at this year’s conference in Denmark to discuss implementing a binding global climate change treaty.”This is the 15th time all the leaders from almost every country in the world have gotten together to address the environmental issue of climate change, how it affects the world and how we’ll work together to mitigate the effects,” Guillory said. “It’s time for [the United States] to step up because we’re such a huge part of the problem [of carbon emissions].”Robert Friedman, environmental studies junior at Bates College in Maine and SSC member, said U.S. negotiators went and agreed upon the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, but the U.S. Senate did not ratify the treaty, so the U.S. did not have to meet the protocol’s emissions targets.”This is the fear,” Friedman said. “It could happen again in Copenhagen because the [U.S.] Senate has yet to pass a climate change bill.”Friedman said the U.S. will have negotiators at the conference. President Obama will also attend but not sign anything, he said.Guillory said the Sierra Student Coalition is the student-run national branch of the Sierra Club, which is the oldest and largest environmental organization. She said she’s been involved with the SSC for four years and has served on the executive committee and as the campus contact for the Environmental Conservation Organization at LSU.Guillory said she will speak at open forums at the conference, participate in rallies, attend plenary sessions and workshops and do everything she can to ask Obama to “keep his word and continue to be a progressive world leader.” Friedman said he is attending the conference as part of the SSC’s media team.
 
 
 
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