COP21: An international networks of students must pressure governments to ensure they keep meeting climate change commitments

University is meant to be the one of the greatest experiences in your life. A whirlwind journey of self-discovery, and before we even set foot in our chosen institutions, many students believe their stay in higher education will be stress-free for the most part. This, in itself, is a problem though, because much of the time, it isn’t. University for many young people across the country can be the greatest mental challenge they’ve ever faced.A growing number of students across Britain are admitting they’re struggling. Findings in a Talk to Us survey carried out by the Samaritans charity recently revealed 41 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds felt “overwhelmed.” It’s becoming clear soc...

2015: said to be the year of the apparent revival of the UK grime and garage scene. Some will argue it never went away. Those of us who have followed the scene throughout the years will understand there is truth in this claim, but not in a straightforward sense of a newfound popularity or worth. 2015 is the year grime artists became university campus legends, their gigs and appearances selling out in days in student-dominated cities such as Leeds, Bristol, and Manchester.

Mainstream media is celebrating what has been achieved at COP21, and I guess you can see why. It is - whatever you think of it - genuinely a historic deal. But it’s far from being the silver bullet for climate justice that some are saying it is - and there’s still a lot for us to do.For a start, the deal doesn’t actually meet the two degree target, let alone the 1.5 degrees needed to protect the most low-lying nations. Ahead of COP21, each party submitted a voluntary declaration of what they would do nationally. If you add up all the commitments, you get carbon reductions which end up somewhere between 2.7 and 3.5 degrees warming. Obviously, we need to push our governments a lot harder...