The Copenhagen Climate Conference or more officially known as COP15 United Nations Climate Conference did not end as intended. Many call it a dismal failure. Some, though, are hopeful that it has, at least, paved the way for a more binding agreement to happen sometime next year.

The responsibility to follow through on the efforts jumpstarted at the COP15 falls largely on the UN. According to Prof. Wangari Maathai, a Nobel Peace laureate, and Goodwill Ambassador for the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem, the UN has to “create a conducive environment to quickly follow-up on the conclusions in Copenhagen and arrive at a better outcome for the planet; probably a compromise agreement that would remove the impasse and move the process forward again. Industrialised countries committed to reductions of greenhouse gas emissions that would maintain levels of increase in global temperatures below 2°C, while more vulnerable developing countries prefer levels below 1.5°C.”

As with many global decisions, the UN plays a crucial role in coordinating, monitoring, prodding, even inspiring. It is, after all, a watchdog agency with personnel that are officially in position to be watchmen. With such a vital issue as climate change, the watchmen now need to be even more alert as ever. The UN will have to go beyond its duty to call countries to action. This time, it has to police whatever little agreements were forged at Copenhagen.

It can no longer be denied that controlling greenhouse gas emissions of countries needs police work. This is because climate change has gone beyond being a mere social, moral, even environmental issue. It has already become a huge economic consideration, as well as “a security issue because it will cause large migrations of environmental refugees that will escape rising seas, loss of land to desertification, and lack of water.”

Hence, unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions by countries can already be considered a crime that needs police work and enforcement of laws for which the UN should be the forefront agency.

Image: Demokraatti
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