Towards Cross-Border Environmental Policy Spaces in North America: Province-State Linkages on the Canada-U.S. Border

Abstract

A growing number of case studies have painted a picture of a burgeoning network of subnational and cross-border regional environmental linkages along the Canada-United States border, a development which may indicate an evolution in governance arrangements such that cross-border environmental policy spaces are being created. In addition to increasing in number, this literature suggests that cross-border interactions have become more formalized, more functionally intense and increasingly multilateral, or regional, in orientation. This paper explores in a comprehensive, cross-regional manner the finding of these case studies with regard to the extent and intensity of subnational activity by examining the findings of a 2005 survey of environmental linkages between states and provinces along the Canada-U.S. border. The survey findings indicate that subnational and regional interactions have been institutionally and functionally ‘intact’ for longer than most observers of Canada-U.S. environmental relations might expect. One of the most interesting findings is that subnational and regional cross-border environmental linkages, contrary to conventional wisdom, have become more numerous over time but not necessarily more intense in functional terms. Moreover, as expected, environmental linkages are clearly regionally concentrated; clusters of highly linked states and provinces can be found along the Canada-U.S. border, particularly in New England, the Great Lakes and the Pacific Northwest. Each of the clusters – or environmental regions – exhibits unique characteristics in terms of the extent and intensity of cross-border linkages.