Billy Koenig, a Shakopee High School science teacher, is heading to Paris to represent the U.S. at a climate change conference attended by leaders from nearly 200 countries.
Koenig is one of 10 Americans picked by Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy, a Minnesota-based nonprofit, to attend this year's Conference to the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris as an education ambassador.
Koenig, who is starting his 10th year teaching biology and environmental ethics at Shakopee, will visit Paris from Nov. 30 through Dec. 11 to hear representatives discuss the topic of climate change and how to stabilize its effects.
One of the conference's goals is to come to a new international agreement to limit the global temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius, about 36 degrees Fahrenheit.
Koenig and other education ambassadors will share their experiences at the conference with citizens around the world through blog posts and webcasts. He can also submit questions from students to negotiators at the conference.
"I am honored to be one of ten U.S. Education Ambassadors and am excited to communicate the happenings at the Paris conference to students nationwide," Koenig said in a statement.
