Increasing the American Commitment to Multilateral Climate Action from the Bottom Up: An assessment of U.S. states’ federally protected capacity to increase compliance with international climate commitments

Authors

• Brynne H. Robbins, Colby CollegeFollow

Abstract

With comprehensive domestic rollbacks to environmental protections, environmental federalism is more important now than ever. Can states’ prerogatives under federalism be channeled into international institutions in a way that affects meaningful change and mitigates the federal government’s inaction? Are states able to elicit greater compliance with the U.S.’s former commitments to international agreements like the Paris Agreement? And how has their sphere of international influence changed under a second Trump administration?

This article will assess the degree to which subnational actors, protected by federalism, can mitigate federal inaction on climate by examining five different ways states have extended their influence internationally: (1) California’s Clean Car standards have increased the market share of electric vehicles internationally through technology-forcing environmental regulations. (2) The Western Climate Initiative Cap-and-Trade program between California and Québec creates a more efficient market through which to create accountability, generate revenue for climate justice, and effectively regulate a complex system of emitters. (3) Widespread membership of U.S. states in the U.S. Climate Alliance and as non-Party stakeholders in the Paris Agreement have kept policy momentum despite federal inconsistency. (4) Cross-border environmental paradiplomacy through the New England Governors-Eastern Canadian Premiers has built strong scientific and regional ties, demonstrating the importance of subnational actors in setting comprehensive climate goals. And (5), California Governor Gavin Newsom’s utilization of multilateral soft power on the international stage has maintained a U.S. presence in global climate governance, acknowledging a need for distributive and compensatory justice.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Robbins, Brynne H. (2026) "Increasing the American Commitment to Multilateral Climate Action from the Bottom Up: An assessment of U.S. states’ federally protected capacity to increase compliance with international climate commitments," Bates College Undergraduate Law Review: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 9.
Available at: https://scarab.bates.edu/bulr/vol3/iss1/9