The Foreign Service Journal, October 2021

38 OCTOBER 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL the treaty to report to the UNFCCC, but they may make use of the “Non-state Actor Zone for Climate Actions” registry, posting their own intended commitments for review and critique. The NAZCA registry currently boasts 19,690 “actors,” of which 2,148 are American—including 16 states, 246 cities, 832 companies and 854 organizations, each of which has committed to specific GHG reduction strategies and targets. The promotion and mutual review of targets, policies and strategies has enabled nonstate actors to organize in new ways. Although COP 23 (2017) occurred after the United States had begun the process of withdrawing from the treaty, a U.S. team under the banner of “We Are Still In” attended the conference representing 20 states, 110 U.S. cities and more than 1,400 businesses. This group also began releasing an annual report, “America’s Pledge,” which quantified the impact of U.S. nonfed- eral actors working toward the Paris accord goals. “We Are Still In” continued to attend subsequent COPs, growing in size. As the Biden administration returned the U.S. to the Paris accord, the group renamed itself “America Is All In” and helped shape (and then endorsed) the April 2021 new U.S. INDC commit- ment to reduce emissions by 50-52 percent (from 2005 levels) by 2030. This movement highlighted what the drafters of the Paris Agreement had intended to be an important aspect of the treaty. With no sanctions identified, the accord relies on the “soft law” approach of “naming and shaming” signatories who either adopt modest goals in their INDCs or fail to achieve the results prom- ised. It was hoped that mobilizing “nonparty stakeholders” from civil society, state and local government, and industry could help lead governments toward more ambitious goals while simulta- neously demonstrating how to implement change. Another example of nonparty stakeholder leadership comes from two organizations closely associated with the Paris confer- ence: Mission Innovation and the Breakthrough Energy Coali- tion. The former is an intergovernmental and public-private platform that involves 23 U.S. states and seeks to connect global research and development to accelerate clean energy innova- tion. The latter is a multibillion-dollar venture capital program, led by notables in the U.S. high-tech sector, which seeks to provide flexible early-stage investment for promising technolo- gies in next-generation energy development. Both organizations support the Paris accord, and both explain their work in terms of accelerating progress toward its goals. By connecting investors, state and local government, indus- try and activists, the Paris Agreement attempts to engender the innovation required to pursue its transformative goals. Organizing states and nonstate actors toward cooperative problem-solving is an approach the United Nations used to good effect in the Millen- niumDevelopment Goals. Implementation of this kind of hybrid multilateralism in a treaty focused on climate change is simulta- neously a recognition of the limits of state power in addressing the issue and an effort to embrace the dynamism of nonstate actors who may pursue solutions with more creativity. n By connecting investors, state and local government, industry and activists, the Paris Agreement attempts to engender the innovation required to pursue its transformative goals. RESOURCES Global Climate Action NAZCA Registry Rafael Leal-Arcas and Antonio Morelli, “The Resilience of the Paris Agreement: Negotiating and Implementing the Climate Regime,” Georgetown Environmental Law Review , 2018, Vol. 31, Issue 1 Miranda A. Schreurs, “The Paris Climate Agreement and the Three Largest Emitters: China, the United States, and the European Union,” Politics and Governance , 2016, Vol. 4, Issue 3 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, “Nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement: Synthesis report by the secretariat,” Feb. 26, 2021 United Nations, “ Paris Agreement, ” 2015, English text