Remember Cascadia? It's the ethereal notion that the Pacific coast of North America is, or could be, an entity in its own right. It's not defined much beyond that. Cascadia is like Atlantis -- it lives in the minds of dreamers who look at the map and wonder what might be.

But there's a fairly new political concept that has echoes of Cascadia in it. And oddly enough, it's climate change.

Climate change is bringing western states and provinces together like never before. It's way too early to tell whether the ideas being discussed will achieve the goal of saving us from ourselves.

But so far, it's remarkable how much further along the north-south dialogue on climate change is compared to the usual east-west axis in both the U.S. and Canada.

In most other political enterprises, B.C. would reach east and look to Ottawa and other provinces for support and validation. But on climate change, there's an obvious difference between what a reluctant federal government is doing and what a full-speed-ahead B.C. Liberal government is doing about climate change.

Premier Gordon Campbell is bypassing the traditional west-east dialogue. Instead, he's looking south to the western U.S. states for partnership, support and authority.

Partly that's because the attempt to mount an all-Canadian approach to the problem failed miserably. Campbell tried to put an all-provincial consensus together in August at a premiers' conference and it fell apart.

The provinces can't agree on what to do. The federal government isn't doing much.

When Campbell looks south, though, he finds people who are on the same wavelength. Particularly in California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is constructing a model plan that Campbell is following to the letter.

Not only is the plan the same, the context in which it was set is identical. Schwarzenegger and Campbell both govern jurisdictions where the national leaders are way behind the curve on climate change, either ignoring, downplaying or responding ineffectually to it.

Schwarzenegger earlier this year told President George W. Bush to "get out of the way" and stop hampering his efforts to curtail emissions, or he'd go to court.

Campbell hasn't gone that far as far as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is concerned. But he is clearly making his own way on climate change. He's vastly more interested in taking leadership from Schwarzenegger than he is in seeking direction from Harper.

Schwarzenegger's fingerprints were all over the launch of Campbell's climate-change crusade last February. B.C. was the first Canadian province to join the climate registry started by California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico.

B.C. also joined the western climate initiative, a similar coalition of western states that is aiming at regional emission reduction targets.

Campbell has also signed specific memos of understanding with Schwarzenegger, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire and Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski on climate change projects.

The catchphrase covering those deals is "the Pacific Coast Collaboration to Protect Our Shared Climate and Ocean."

Campbell is signing these MOUs even though the U.S. portion of the collaboration goes against a key Liberal position. The U.S. states have agreed to call for a ban on offshore oil exploration. But that somehow gets overlooked when B.C. joins the dance.

What makes the "Cascadian" aspect of the climate-change crusade all the more interesting is Campbell's presence this week in Lisbon, Portugal. He was the only Canadian official at the International Carbon Action Partnership.

He wasn't representing Canada, of course. He was representing B.C. Campbell formally signed on to the partnership as a member of the western climate initiative. It seems clear that B.C. is throwing its lot in with California, Washington and Oregon, rather than waiting for Ottawa to decide.

And those western states in turn are going it alone, rather than waiting for the U.S. government to come up with a strategy.

Global warming is a good issue to get ahead on. But how far ahead of Ottawa can B.C. get?

The Lisbon agreement is an effort to link the western climate initiative and several similar regional pacts with a European Union project in the same vein.

All the knowledge behind regional agreements to put caps on emissions in place will be pooled, with a view to sharing ideas on development of compatible global carbon-trading systems.

Europe is already trading. The western climate initiative is working toward that system. B.C. will soon be introducing legislation to put the major emission reduction targets into law. The more refined work on exactly how it will work is expected next spring.

It's when Ottawa eventually enters the fray that things will get interesting. The federal Conservatives so far prefer a Canadian-only market in any carbon trading that emerges. And they are opposed to a carbon tax, which is something B.C. Liberals like Finance Minister Carole Taylor are at least pondering at this point.

But one thing is clear; Campbell was right yesterday when he said climate change requires "collaboration unlike anything we have seen before."

Just So You Know: Speaking of Pacific-coast collaboration, some aspects of this concept were discussed previously, in an article I wrote for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer earlier this year.