Synergy of soft and hard regulations in climate governance: The impact of state policies on local climate mitigation actions

Abstract

Soft regulations refer to a wide range of quasi-legal instruments enforced through non-binding and less coercive mechanisms. They are becoming increasingly vital in environmental governance for addressing complex issues across multilevel government authorities. However, the impact of sub-national state soft regulations on local governments has not received adequate scholarly attention. In this study, we compile a novel dataset of U.S. local government climate mitigation actions and state-level climate policies from various sources. We test how state climate action plans—primary examples of soft regulation—along with four other state-level hard regulations, influence local governments' climate mitigation actions. Our findings reveal that, while state climate action plans do not directly drive local governments' specific climate mitigation actions, they play significant roles in motivating local goal setting. In contrast, hard regulations, such as state policies that directly target CO₂ emissions, not only stimulate local goal setting on climate change but also promote direct climate mitigation actions. Moreover, our results demonstrate the interactive effect of soft and hard regulations in fostering intergovernmental collaboration on climate change.