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.

摘要

在魁北克省（加拿大）和加利福尼亚州（美利坚合众国）承诺独立于其中央政府根据《巴黎协定》采取雄心勃勃的行动的情况下，本文询问这些联邦州是否真正执行各自管辖范围内的《巴黎协定》规定。本文首先描述了气候制度逐渐扩展到联合国成员国之外，成为一种“全方位”多层次和多中心气候治理的形式。然后，它确定了《巴黎协定》对签署方的期望，并介绍了魁北克和加利福尼亚的案例研究，以评估它们是否符合其规定。分析表明，两者确实在各自的管辖范围内执行了《巴黎协定》的关键条款。这些发现证实，一些联邦国家作为其外交气候战略的一部分，在围绕《巴黎协定》构建的全球气候制度中充当了自主行为者。更广泛地说，这些发现证明了地方政府在帮助弥合努力差距以对气候紧急情况做出充分反应方面的作用和贡献。