Dec. 18, 2009, will be remembered as a failure of the international system. Fifteen years of negotiations, 22 years of research with  97 percent of climatologists convinced that humans are causing the climate to change, the largest day of political action in history calling for climate action, 117 heads of state in attendance: none of this prevented the recent climate negotiations in Copenhagen from being a total and complete failure.

As a U.S. youth delegate, I watched the tone of the negotiations change from cheesily optimistic predictions of “Hopenhagen” to a grim acknowledgment of the deep divisions between the negotiators, turning Hopenhagen into “Nopenhagen.” While it’s fun to invent catchy nicknames for Denmark’s capital, it was far less enjoyable to watch the high-level negotiations of 192 countries deteriorate into a scene more befitting of a elementary school playground with rampant accusations of “China did it” or “It’s the United States’ fault.”

Signs of the impending failure began early in the first week. Tuvalu, a small island nation four inches above sea level, caused an upheaval  by proposing a new process under the Kyoto Protocol for increased transparency and reducing control of rich countries. Many smaller developing nations rallied around Tuvalu’s move while countries like China were against it, saying “we don’t have time for a new debate.” Finally, Tuvalu used its power to suspend the high-level negotiations, although numerous side negotiations continued to run simultaneously.

Shortly thereafter, the Association of Small Island States announced that they refused to accept the “suicide pact” of the current negotiations and instead wanted to limit emissions to 350 parts per million of CO2 as a “survival pact.” This would mean heavy emissions reductions since the world is well over 387 parts per million. A business as usual scenario would put us at 800 parts per million, a scenario scientists say would almost certainly devastate civilization.

The divide between the rich and poor countries continued to worsen over the second week when delegates of the developing countries (known as the G77) walked out of the negotiations, claiming that the rich countries are working to weaken the agreement.

The United States remained silent throughout the protests, failing to respond to a claim by  Tuvalu’s negotiator that the entire international negotiating process “is being held up by a handful of United States senators.” As I wrote in a previous column, the U.S. negotiators openly admitted that they are incredibly limited by what the senate will accept.

On Wednesday of the second week, all 15,000 members of civil society were kicked out of the conference center as world leaders began to arrive. Our youth delegation moved to a separate space where we worked with members of the Kenyan youth delegation and White House staffers to present President Obama with a packet of letters from youth in his Midwestern homeland and his ancestral land of Kenya.

Meanwhile, inside the conference center, negotiators began to scramble for agreement, continuing the negotiations well into the night with the goal of having a text ready for the leaders of the world to sign. The sleepless nights failed to induce compromise and world leaders were ushered into the conference with grim faces and sleeves rolled. Then things really got dirty.

President Obama arrived on the final day of negotiations. Sensing failure: and the mockery Republicans would make of a second disaster in the Danish capital: Obama immediately cleared his schedule. Circumventing the international system, our President focused on meeting with a handful of the major players.

Obama largely focused on China, pushing transparency: the willingness of China to submit itself to an international regime that would monitor it to make sure it was cutting its emissions as promised. The Prime Minister of China, Wen Jiabao, said that such a measure would threaten China’s sovereignty. When Obama said that China’s stance on accountability would equate to “empty words on the page,” Jiabao walked out of the conference center.

Later, in an emergency meeting of 30 heads of state, China sent a lowly protocol officer as a snub to Obama. President Obama then walked in: uninvited: to a meeting of China, Brazil, India and South Africa.

The final text emerged shortly before midnight. The two and a half page political agreement: known as the Copenhagen Accord: is vaguely worded, not legally binding and leaves emissions targets and financing up to individual countries who are supposed to write numbers in an appendix.

Even such a weak document proved near impossible for the entire body to accept, with chief British negotiator Ed Miliband returning to the conference center at 4 a.m. to persuade a handful of countries to accept the accord. Eventually, all 192 countries agreed to “note” the accord: not “accept” but “note.”

Copenhagen illustrated all too clearly that the international system is not equipped to handle a problem like climate change. When countries as small as Tuvalu and as big as China are put together in the small grouping of “developing countries”: and their emissions targets are treated as such: we know that something is wrong. While the Copenhagen Accord was the first time developing countries have agreed on emissions cuts and the first time the world has agreed on financing, the accord still leaves much to be desired.

“It’s clear we cannot rely on the governmental sector on its own to act in time. World leaders are failing to respond with the urgency which the science demands,” said Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “If there was ever a time for a grassroots mobilization, this is it.”