Nearly 200 national governments have committed to make cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in an ambitious global deal. But the task will in many ways fall to cities, states and provinces.
Indeed, one of the most striking ways the Paris climate summit differed from its predecessors was the engagement of subnational governments. Such “non-party” actors held many side-meetings at the summit to celebrate existing programs and make public commitments for further actions. But though they were not signers, they were fully embedded in the Paris Agreement itself:
Agreeing to uphold and promote regional and international cooperation in order to mobilize stronger and more ambitious climate action by all Parties and non-Party stakeholders, including civil society, the private sector, financial institutions, cities and other subnational authorities, local communities and indigenous peoples,…(p. 2)
The term “subnational” appears six times in the 32-page text (compared to none in the 1998 Kyoto Protocol). How did this shift evolve, and what is its implication for converting a landmark aspirational agreement into difficult-to-achieve emission reductions?
Acting Locally
When climate change first emerged on the international agenda, the 1987 Montreal Protocol for protecting the ozone layer was the model for responding. It was a centralized regime that focused on national governments cooperating to address a common problem.
This model, however, has proven unsuitable in addressing climate change. To curb ozone-depleting chemicals, the Montreal Protocol focused on a small number of developed countries, a small number of multinational corporations and a narrow range of actions.
Climate change is vastly more complicated, with drivers on every level from local to global, and as result, little effective international action has emerged. In this vacuum, subnational governments and civic society actors have begun responding to the threats of climate change, and seizing the economic opportunities in moving toward clean energy, whether or not action takes place on the international stage.
Researchers are finding that in the last decade the “evolving reality of climate change policy development, in the U.S. and abroad, relies heavily on sub-national initiative.” Even national agencies like the U.S. EPA and international efforts like the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report consider subnational actions critical components for future national and international action.
Cities, states and provinces have become dynamic laboratories for climate change policy. They’ve experimented with carbon taxes, rebates, cap-and-trade programs, building codes, financing mechanisms, private-public partnerships, innovation incubators, university-government partnerships and streamlined permitting for renewable energy projects.
These “subnational authorities” demonstrate that climate policy can reap environmental benefits in the form of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. Perhaps more important, however, is that for many subnational governments, aggressive clean energy policies deliver substantial economic benefits in the form of reduced energy costs, less energy price volatility, job growth, keeping energy dollars local and greater energy security.
In fact, the large portfolio of subnational policy experiments sparked the private sector, from multinationals to start-ups to innovate technologies, as well as delivery, marketing, deployment and financing of them.
Regional, State and Local Report Card
In the U.S. Northeast, both Democratic and Republican governors initiated the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a voluntary compact and the first North American cap-and-trade program. The region set a “cap” – a limit on the total amount that all power plants can emit each year (91 million tons). Then it created a carbon market in which carbon allowances could be “traded.” The less a power company emits, the fewer allowances it needs, so it has an incentive to be more efficient. As the cap is lowered over time, overall, the energy market is driven to pollute less and creates economic advantages for clean-energy innovation.
