Editor’s note: Douglas Fischer is in Bonn with a delegation of Montana State University students. The Daily Climate will publish a selection of their observations and assessments over the next week. Follow them online at #climateclass.

An obscure negotiating session of the UN climate talks is suddenly in the spotlight – but for all the wrong reasons.

The United Nations opens its interim talks here in Bonn on Monday, a two-week negotiating session that traditionally sets the agenda for the larger fall meetings.

But as with so many political issues this year, the climate is anything but quiet: President Trump is mulling an exit from commitments Barack Obama inked in Paris in 2015, Europe stands poised to abandon its leadership role in emissions reduction, and delegates are watching to see if China, India or another country steps to the front and assumes the mantle of climate leadership.