“All in” climate regime: federated states as autonomous participants to the Paris Agreement the cases of Québec and California

Abstract

ABSTRACT In a context where the province of Québec (Canada) and the state of California (United States of America) have committed to take ambitious actions in line with the Paris Agreement independently of their central government, this paper asks whether these federated states are truly implementing the provisions of the Paris Agreement in their own jurisdictions. This paper first describes the climate regime’s gradual expansion beyond United Nations member states to a form of “all in” multilevel and polycentric climate governance. It then identifies what the Paris Agreement expects of signatory Parties and presents case studies of Québec and California to assess whether they meet its provisions. The analysis reveals that both are indeed implementing the key provisions of the Paris Agreement in their own jurisdiction. These findings confirm that some federated states, as part of their paradiplomatic climate strategies, acts as autonomous actors within the global climate regime structured around the Paris Agreement. More broadly, these findings demonstrate the role and contribution of subnational governments in helping to bridge the effort gap to provide an adequate response to the climate emergency.