(WARSAW, Poland) — "I'm ashamed to tell anyone here I'm a Canadian. When they find out they say 'ohh we pity you'," said Leehi Yona, a 20-year old Montrealer who attended the UN climate talks in Warsaw, Poland.

"All Canadians would be outraged if they knew how Canada behaves on the world stage," Yona, a student at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, told DeSmog on the last day of the two-week negotiations. She's in Warsaw with the US Climate Action Network, a coalition of environmental groups.

"I'm determined to tell as many Canadians as I can what's happening in Warsaw."

About 12,000 people are involved in the climate treaty negotiations known as COP 19. At least 1,500 are members of environmental and civil society organizations. In a nutshell, COP 19 is step towards creating a new climate treaty by 2015 to keep global warming to less than 2˚ C and to help poor countries survive the mounting impacts.

There's little love for Canada in Warsaw. For two long weeks nations of the world have tried to come to grips with the climate crisis. Canada's representatives blocked and delayed progress, generating no small amount of anger from the Philippines, Bangladesh, African countries and small island states facing threats to their very existence.

"The international community has given up Canada. We're seen as a tragic story now," Yona said.

Even international environmental organizations can't be bothered to criticize Canada any more. After being judged the worst country at the last five UN climate meetings, Canada didn't even make the list. 

There were dozens of young Canadians in Warsaw. Most weren't even born when Canada was the leading international force in the 1980s and early 1990s, launching many environmental initiatives like the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

"Canada has rarely spoken for itself in Warsaw," said Anjali Appadurai of Vancouver who is a youth representative working as a notetaker for the Third World Network. "When they do speak, it's to pay lip service to the COP process. There is a selfish arrogance and lack of respect," Appadurai told DeSmog. As an observer she has far more access since media are barred from witnessing most of the negotiations.

Appadurai is a COP veteran. As a college student in 2011 she delivered the  “Get it Done!” speech at the close of COP 17 in Durban, garnering media attention around the world. It was an echo of nine-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki's moving speech at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.

Cullis-Suzuki received a standing ovation. Appaduari was banned from the COP 17 and future COPs for participating in an "unsanctioned protest" afterward.

National governments acting through the UN have increasingly restricted the role and activities of youth and participants from civil society at these meetings, she said. No posters. No flyers. No demonstrations except at pre-approved times in designated locations well away from the negotiations. When allowed to speak at official sessions, civil society organizations' speaking time has been cut in half to a single minute. 

At last year's COP 18 in Doha, Appaduari was allowed in after a week of appeals and a "Twitter storm" by civil society organizations. She had to sign a declaration promising to behave. Her participation this year was under similar circumstances.

"I had to sign a contract saying I will behave and not participate in any unsanctioned actions," she said.

In Warsaw three youth were banned for five years for holding up signs naming Filipino communities destroyed by super typhoon Haiyan. "It's getting a little bit scary. Youth and civil society are being pushed to the margins," Appaduari said.

That was one of the reasons why more than 800 members of environmental and civil society organizations walked out of the climate talks on the second last day of negotiations.

It takes a huge effort and expense for students to spend one or two weeks at a climate convention. "The UN tells us they want our voices here but no one listens," Yona said. "I came because I refuse to accept inaction on climate. We will have to live with the consequences."

Yona is making things happen. She's President of Green Schools Coalition of Montreal, an environmental advocate and organizer. Civil society organizations are shifting from an international focus to the local and expect to see an increase in community engagement around the world in 2014.

"I want to tell my children I did absolutely everything I could," she said.

A wide-ranging international coalition of youth is being created to help each other win battles in their local communities, Appaduari said.

"We want climate justice and to create a radically different future than the terrible one we're facing today." 

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Canada and every other rich country need to crash their CO2 emissions 10% per year starting in 2014 to have any hopes of ensuring a not-super-dangerous climate for our grandchildren, said Kevin Anderson of Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester.

"We can still do 2C but not the way we're going," Anderson said on the sidelines of the UN climate talks, in Warsaw, Poland.

Anderson wasn't just referring to the lengthy-and-acronym-laden COP 19 process held inside Warsaw's 58,000-seat soccer stadium. It's too late for any normal approaches to emissions reductions. Preventing climate disaster requires a radical measures and our economic system is not up to the task he said.

"Massive amounts of capital needs to be directed towards a low-carbon future straight away."

Not only does that mean governments redirecting the more than $500 billion they spend subsidizing fossil fuels, it means financial institutions and pension funds need to pull their money out of dirty energy and put it into green projects. If they're not willing, then governments will have to make them he said.

And for the next five years most of that money should go into reducing energy consumption. Alternative energy can't be built fast enough or at the scale needed to 100% replace dirty energy sources.

Automobile manufacturers like Kia and BMW already have non-hybrid, non-electric vehicles with double the fuel efficiency of the typical car on the road today. If governments put in tough new efficiency standards, CO2 emissions could fall 40-50% in 10 years he said.

As "pushers of petroleum" the Harper government isn't about to do anything like this said David Cadman, President of ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability), the only network of sustainable cities operating worldwide.

"They don't understand science and are willing to leave future generations with a bleak and nasty world," Cadman told DeSmog in Warsaw.

The practical alternative vision is a green low-carbon future that is different but far better than the present. And cities are leading the way. Currently a group of 441 cities representing 15% of people on the planet are taking concrete action to reduce their emissions said Cadman, a Vancouver city councilor.

Cities like Vancouver, Mexico City, Hyderbad India, Osaka, Japan, and Bangkok have registered their efforts to reduce emissions on an official Cities Climate Registry. The idea is to raise the global level of ambition through taking measurable, reportable, verifiable local climate action. After only two years these cities have now found ways to reduce their collective CO2 emissions by 2.2 billion tons a year.

Cities are amongst the biggest source of emissions but equally important is their role in giving birth to a low-carbon global culture that we need to thrive said Cadman.

"The green way of living will be fairer, more compact, create more jobs, reduce energy and other costs, and be more in harmony with nature and our own true natures. It's the opposite of where we are now where a few get rich."

The climate action by cities and subnational governments (regional and provincial) is finally being noticed at the UN climate talks that are dominated by national governments. Thursday, 21 November was “Cities Day”, a first-of-its kind initiative that bundles numerous city-focused events.

"Cities are central in tackling climate change. They are proving grounds for our efforts in ensuring a low carbon future that benefits people and the planet,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at the opening in Warsaw.

Now that cities are finally inside the UN tent, Cadman hopes their actions will help inspire generally fearful national governments to take ambitious action.

"That won't be enough however. Climate is simply not a priority of national governments. Cities and regional governments have to mobilize the public," he said.

This mobilization means working with civil society organizations, First Nations, business and especially young people.

"We have to work together to motivate national governments to help create a green future for all of us," Cadman told a packed audience on Cities Day.

Time is short. There are just two years before the new climate treaty is signed in Paris. That agreement needs to be the turning point.  We can’t wait for a second chance to keep global temperatures below the 2C threshold.

"Everyone must be involved. Nothing else is more important.”

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WARSAW, Poland — Canada has led the way to scuttle the UN climate talks here in Warsaw, Poland taking with it nearly all hope of keeping global warming to less than 2C say members of various international organizations.

Along with 190-plus nations, the Harper government signed an international agreement to keep carbon emissions below 2C at the UN climate talks in Cancun in 2011. And yet here at these very difficult climate talks to create a new treaty to protect the climate, the Canadian delegation considers the 2C target "aspirational" and not especially important according to sources.

The government's official COP 19 Qs and As webpage fails to mention the 2C target.

Canada has unilaterally walked away from it's international climate commitments including the Kyoto Protocol and the 2009 Copenhagen Accord said Bill Hare, director of Climate Analytics, a German climate science research organization.

Following Canada's lead, Japan abandoned its Copenhagen target last Friday. Meanwhile, Australia under the Abbott government, has gutted its climate policies making it impossible to reach even its inadequate Copenhagen target Hare told DeSmog here in Warsaw.

The Harper government actually congratulated the Abbott government for doing this.

"These countries' promises and commitments are not worth the paper they're written on," said Hare.

This is creating a "very corrosive atmosphere" here. Why should any country trust Canada, Japan or Australia when these countries have no problem walking away from previous commitments he said.

"We're in a downward spiral that's pushing us on a path to 5C a temperature the planet has not seen in 55 million years," he said.

Even a future where the global average temperature is 4C higher means temperatures in southern Canada will be 10 to 12C hotter than the warmest days. Food production will collapse as well most nations says Alice Bows-Larkin, a climate scientist at the UK's Tyndall Climate Center.

"A 4C world must be avoided at all costs," Bows-Larkin said.

This bleak future can be avoided but countries like Canada must cut their carbon emissions 10 percent per year starting now she said.

Instead Canada's emissions are skyrocketing mainly because of the tar sands. Meanwhile the Harper government tells Canadians it takes climate change seriously and is acting.

"As a Canadian I'm ashamed of our increasing emissions and our efforts to block progress on creating a new climate treaty," said Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands and leader of Canada's Green Party.

That's probably why the Harper government refused to allow May to be part of the Canadian delegation here in Warsaw. Instead, she is here as a member of the tiny Afghanistan delegation, who are grateful for her knowledgable support in what is a very complex negotiation.

"Rich countries like Canada never talk about staying below 2C," May told DeSmog. "We're walking away from our commitments, even the ones the Harper government made."

She urged Canadians to pressure their MPs, and not just Tory MPs. The Liberals and NDP need to be pushed to take a strong stand on climate she said.

"There is an election coming in 2015. We have to make climate change the key issue." 

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