Camden recently became the first Maine town to join nearly 7,500 cities and towns from around the world in committing to an agreement that aims to combat climate change at a local level. But unlike in the thousands of other municipalities that signed on to join the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, local high students are the ones who have conducted the groundwork research for Camden by taking inventory of greenhouse gas emissions. Ten students from the Watershed School, an independent high school in Camden, took six weeks this spring to collect data on building, transportation and other sources of emissions produced in Camden so the town can then set goals on how to reduce these emissions. “It’s really important for us at this age, to not just be informed about [climate change] but to take action with it, so we know in the future what to do, and what to tell the next generation to do,” Watershed student Maura Carpenter said. The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy is an international alliance of local governments that have agreed to assess their contributions to climate change, form strategies and an action plan to reduce emissions at the local level, and then report back to the covenant on progress. In March, Camden officials agreed to commit to the alliance, but only if students could help with the first step of taking inventory of Camden’s emissions. So, they turned to the students of Watershed’s global climate change class. Each year, students of this class take on an end-of-year research project that explores climate change.