Campus Highlights from COP-17

Delegates and representatives have flown home allowing the dust to settle around the COP-17 talks in Durban, but the substance and outcomes of the two week long talks remain a bit hazy. Overall, our world's leading environmental envoys and ministers spent 14 days (after an unusual extension) debating the best approach to addressing global climate change, and came up with:

1) creating a Global Climate Fund to assist developing countries with climate adaptation

2) developing a new global treaty some time in the future to supplant Kyoto and require developing countries to also reduce emissions

Much like previous years, the passive nature of the resolutions is disappointing though not surprising; the fundamental economic disparities between developed and developing countries continue to yield discussions around accountability for emissions as opposed to strategic reductions of emissions.

Still, college students made an impression and conveyed the message that real action is needed, and it's needed fast. Most notably, Middlebury College student Abigail Borah interrupted Todd Stern, the US Special Envoy for Climate Change (see video below): "I am scared for my future. 2020 is too late to wait," she said. "We need an urgent path to a fair ambitious and legally binding treaty."