Despite being left out in the cold among competing national agendas at the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, a local framework is still the most viable way forward in reducing carbon emissions, writes Martin Brennan.

The derailment of the Conference of the Parties (COP) 15 in Copenhagen will no doubt be analysed over the coming months and there will be many and varied explanations and responses.

Some analysts will be politically motivated, others ideologically driven and some science sceptical. What is clear is that a re-think of the structure and form of the COP is required in order to ensure that the debacle that occurred in Copenhagen both logistically and politically does not happen in Mexico City this year. The deafening silence of the United Nations is rather bewildering given the enormous investment made by countries, cities, NGOs and civil society in the COP15. The inability of the UN Secretariat to accommodate delegates and facilitate an agreement or a political declaration does not provide the sense of 'hope' that Copenhagen promised.

A casualty of the COP15 was the 'Local Government Roadmap' initiated in Bali at the COP13 in 2007. The roadmap aimed at securing in a post-2012 agreement the recognition of the integral role of local government in tackling climate change. MORE>>

Read the full report: After the COP-out [PDF]