Canadian environmentalists attending the UN Climate Change Conference in Poland allege federal government officials had their group's display — meant to show the environmental damage caused by oilsands projects — taken down.

About 145 environment ministers and other top officials are in Poland, working toward reaching a new agreement in Copenhagen in 2009 to lower greenhouse gas emissions. The agreement, meant to replace the Kyoto Protocol after it expires, would go into effect in 2013.

Students from the Ottawa-based environmental group Canadian Youth Climate Coalition are also in Poznan for the conference, which runs from Dec. 1 to Dec. 12.

Barbara Hayes, a spokeswoman for the youth group, said they were meeting with Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner to discuss their concerns about the oilsands — a meeting she describes as "fairly confrontational" — and returned to find their display on the topic gone.

"This is the first time I have ever heard about anything being asked to be taken down, at all, at these UN conferences, and we've been doing this for a good six years," she said.

"So I don't think it was the conference organizers. They [Canadian officials] went to, I guess, the security or some sort of staff at the conference in Poland, and went sort of behind our backs and had it taken down."

With files from the Canadian Press