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Multilevel governance poses several challenges for the politics of climate change. On the one hand, the unequal distribution of power and interests can serve as a barrier to implementing coherent policy at a federal level. On the other, these features also enable policy leadership among sub-federal units. In the context of wide variation in climate policy at both national and sub-federal levels in Canada and in the United States, this paper utilizes an original data set to examine public attitudes and perceptions toward climate science and climate change policy in two federal systems. Drawing on national and provincial/state level data from telephone surveys administered in the United States and in Canada, the paper provides insight into where the public stands on the climate change issue in two of the most carbon-intensive federal systems in the world. The paper includes the first directly comparable public opinion data on how Canadians and Americans form their opinions regarding climate matters and provides insight into the preferences of these two populations regarding climate policies at both the national and sub-federal levels. Key findings are examined in the context of growing policy experiments at the sub-federal level in both countries and limited national level progress in the adoption of climate change legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a historical background of the evolution of transboundary water governance and environmental diplomacy in the Great Lakes- St. Lawrence basin, with a focus on the International Joint Commission ( IJC), during the twentieth century. This study focuses on water quantity issues, such as diversions, canals, hydroelectric developments, control works, and water levels, revealing the range of artificial and natural impacts on water levels in the Great Lakes- St. Lawrence basin. Doing so provides for a revealing examination of the IJC, which has traditionally been the main forum in which Canada and the United States manage their environmental relations and border water issues, which allows for an engagement with a range of North American transboundary governance theories. While the IJC is often lauded as a model of transnational environmental cooperation, this paper demonstrates that the evolution of this bilateral institution up to the 1960s is more complicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transboundary governance of Pacific salmon fisheries requires interactions between institutions that can enable collective action, collaboration, and continuous learning. However, relatively little is known concerning how civil servants in different institutions and jurisdictions interact with each other within transboundary policy settings. In this paper, we explore the interactions of civil servants from agencies in five jurisdictions: United States (federal), Canada (federal), British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska, to assess the extent to which they interact within the Pacific salmon policy network and also the social capital (i.e., formal and informal communication and trust) present among these working relationships. Our results reveal patchy patterns of interagency communication, and relatively low levels of interagency trust between jurisdictions, suggesting the potential for improved collaboration on Pacific salmon governance. Our analysis also revealed that the binational Pacific Salmon Commission had the highest levels of trust within the network, suggesting it is likely well placed to foster collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]