An American (State) in Paris: The Constitutionality of U.S. States' Commitments to the Paris Agreement

• Date: 01 November 2018

11-2018 NEWS & ANALYSIS 48 ELR 10977

An American (State) in Paris:

The Constitutionality of

U.S. States’ Commitments

to the Paris Agreement

by Kristin McCarthy

Kristin McCarthy is a third-year law student at William & Mary Law School and a member of the William & Mary

Law Review; upon graduation, she will work as an associate at the Los Angeles oce of Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

In June 2017, President Donald Trump conrmed that

the United States will withdraw from the Paris A gree-

ment.1 Almost immediately, individual states began

to pledge their commitments to the Paris Agreement

despite the lack of federal support.2 Just a month after

this announcement of federal withdrawa l, California Gov.

Jerry Brown announced that the state would play host to

the Climate Action Summit in September 2018, and stated

that President Trump “doesn’t speak for the rest of Amer-

ica” in backing out of the Paris Agreement commitments.3

e Climate Action Summit brought together leaders of

states, cities, and businesses th at have pledged their support

for the Paris Agreement, and represented the rst time a

U.S. state hosted an international climate change confer-

ence directly supporting the Paris A greement.4 California

also entered into a memorandum of understanding with

China in June 2017, pledging to cooperate to share infor-

Editor’s Note: is Comment won the Environmental Law Institute’s

2017-2018 Henry L. Diamond Constitutional Environmental Law

Writing Competition.

Author’s Note: I would like to thank Profs. Tara Grove and Linda

Malone of William & Mary Law School for their guidance in

researching these issues, and my mother Carolyn Krejmas for her

never-ending patience and enthusiasm while proofreading everything

I have written since elementary school..

1. Allison H. Ross & Meghan V. Brown, Environmental Federalism: Individual

States, Cities, and Businesses Vow to Combat Climate Change, O C-

 L., Aug. 2017, at 36.

2. See infra Sections II.B.-C.

3. Lisa Friedman, Jerry Brown Announces a Climate Summit Meeting in Cali-

fornia, N.Y. T, July 6, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/

climate/jerry-brown-california-climate-summit.html.

4. Id.

mation on climate-related topics with the goal of advanc-

ing clea n energy technologie s.5

In the midst of these actions by California, at least 20

states, 110 cities, and more than 1,000 businesses and

universities in the United States have publicly pledged

their support for the Paris Agreement.6 Sixteen states rep-

resenting more than 40% of the America n population

have joined together to form the U.S. Climate Alliance,

dedicated to upholding the United States’ original com-

mitments to the Paris Agreement.7 ese states are tak ing

aggressive action to curb their green house gas emissions.

New York, for example, has set greenhouse gas emission

reduction targets at 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, and

80% below 1990 levels by 2050.8 e state aims to be

coal-free by 2020, and to source one-half of its electricity

from renewable energy sources by 2030.9 Add itiona l ly, 18

states have pledged commitments to the Paris Agreement

through the United Nations Non-State Actor Zone for Cli-

mate Action (NAZCA) portal.10

is combination of federal withdrawal a nd state

involvement triggers a series of questions surrounding the

constitutionality of individual state action in the Paris

Agreement. Some scholars have noted that states’ involve-

5. Memorandum of Understanding on California-Jiangsu Clean Technology

Partnership, June 5, 2017, Cal.-China, https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-con-

tent/uploads/2017/09/6.5.17_Jiangsu_MOU.pdf.

6. Michael D. Regan, U.S. Cities, States Pledge Support for Climate Ac-

cord, PBS, Nov. 11, 2017, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/

u-s-cities-states-pledge-support-for-climate-accord.

7. United States Climate Alliance, Home Page, https://www.usclimatealliance.

org/ (last visited Sept. 8, 2018).

8. U.S. C A, 2017 A R: A

S T  L 6 (2017), https://static1.squarespace.com/

static/5936b0bde4fcb5371d7ebe4c/t/59bc4959bebafb2c44067922/

1505511771219/USCA_Climate_Report-V2A-Online-RGB.pdf.

9. Id.

10. See Global Climate Action NAZCA, Home Page, http://climateaction.un-

fccc.int (last visited Sept. 8, 2018).

Copyright © 2018 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.