I know it's en vogue on HN to bash the UN/international diplomacy as useless, but it's illogical to expect a lot of smart folks, working hard for enough time, not to produce useful things. And there's a lot of tragedy-of-the-commons problems which the UN is an excellent forum to solve.
Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (the basis for modern high seas piracy law) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_for_the_Suppressi...
Wellington Convention (prohibition on long drift net fishing in the Pacific) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Convention
1990 Chemical Weapons Accord (bilateral between US and Russia) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Chemical_Weapons_Accord
UNFCCC (basis of UN climate negotiations) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Framework_Con...
Convention on Biological Diversity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Biological_Div...
Chemical Weapons Convention https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_Weapons_Convention
Aarhus Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarhus_Protocol_on_Persisten...
Kyoto Protocol https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (establishes the ICC) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_Statute
... and then everything after 2000 too.
I know it's en vogue on HN to bash the UN/international diplomacy as useless, but it's illogical to expect a lot of smart folks, working hard for enough time, not to produce useful things. And there's a lot of tragedy-of-the-commons problems which the UN is an excellent forum to solve.