At best flawed, at worst chaotic.

That was the verdict of Gordon Brown, Britain’s Prime Minister, on the world leaders’ protracted photo-op in Copenhagen. “[A] worse-than-nothing deal slapped together in the last two hours,” is how Greenpeace blogger mikeg describes it.

By now it’s clear that the hard work of the NGOs and activists didn’t pay off the way many had hoped. Absent an international agreement, national and state-level responses are now essential, and here in Massachusetts we have the opportunity of the 2010 state elections to open up a policy space around real, Green climate-change solutions.

As we Greens gear up for the elections we need to assume the role of Official Opposition in Massachusetts (a role the Republicans abdicated long ago) and start subjecting the Democratic government’s policies to strict scrutiny.

Let’s start with the Democrats’ flagship climate-change measure, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). This cap-and-trade scheme is what the Governor and the legislative leadership point to in answer to questions about their commitment to tackling climate change. But what do schemes like RGGI actually do, other than enrich carbon speculators?

I know one thing RGGI does: It provides a cloak for companies like GDF Suez to hide behind. GDF Suez is the energy giant that owns the coal-burning power station at Mount Tom in Western Massachusetts, a facility that emits more than one million tons of CO2 every year. At the beginning of December I wrote the company’s CEO, Gerard Mestrallet, asking him to switch from coal to renewables at Mount Tom. His answer, which arrived a couple of days ago, explained to me that GDF Suez participates in RGGI.

Well, that’s all right then.

Among the myriad problems that cap-and-trade schemes generate is the one Mr. Mestrallet’s letter represents; the problem of allowing major polluters to pose as public-spirited world citizens. It’s time to put RGGI under the microscope and hold the Democrats accountable.