Hoax press releases circulated earlier today claiming that Canada had committed to drastic greenhouse gas emission cuts.

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It's unclear who is behind the prank. One report in a Toronto Star blog temporarily linked the Canadian Youth Delegation to the hoax but took down the allegation later in the day.

We asked the youth delegates to weigh in on the matter. This is what Kimia Ghomeshi, Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, campaign co-ordinator wrote:

"Well, initially when we heard about the press release we were surprised and a bit skeptical because their new position sounded too good to be true. But from emails going back and forth in the NGO community we came to believe it was real. And now it's clear that it was not. It's unfortunate that Canada doesn't have such strong targets and it was in fact a prank. This has created a lot of buzz in the Bella Center and highlighted how unambitious Canada's greenhouse gas reduction targets and commitment to adaptation is.

It was generally a pretty elaborate stunt and it will be interesting to see how it shapes Canada's position and image here--if it does at all. We have been hearing some rumours around the conference centre about the reactions from other delegations already."