Interesting that it’s now.
The UN is way behind the game here, it’s just a move to bring yet another thing under the whip. The actual ongoing search for asteroids began around 1994, when SL-9 fragments crashed into Jupiter a couple dozen times and left marks that lasted for months, and has been catch as catch can for funding, which is a travesty. There’s never been a cheaper defense program, and planetary defense is just what this is about.