ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes regional New England Governors (NEG) - Eastern Canadian Premiers (ECP) climate change action. The regional political and ecological appropriateness and potential of climate change action in northeastern North America was noted several years before it was launched. Knowledge about regional climate change vulnerabilities has grown even though much about the specific effects of a changing climate is uncertain. Regional climate change cooperation in northeastern North America involves both transgovernmentalism and transnational relations. In developing the regional climate change action plan, NEG-ECP participants relied extensively on existing cooperative institutions, particularly the connections and experience generated by earlier NEG-ECP action around acid rain and mercury abatement. Climate change related policy development in the Northeast could have substantial influence on policy outside the NEG-ECP region as policy precedents in one geographical area often serve as models for future initiatives.
