California is no stranger to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. It has the second-highest carbon footprint of any US state (after Texas). But as diplomats from nearly every country on Earth hash through the final details of an international climate change agreement in Paris this week, they're seeing a very different side of the Golden State. "California can be a template of what is successful," said California State Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), in a press briefing Monday with Steyer and a dozen clean energy entrepreneurs. "We can export our policies."

Norway’s capital city Oslo announced plans to divest its US$9 billion pension fund from coal, oil and gas companies as did 19 French cities and others from around the world.

The divestment bandwagon sprung to life at COP21 as campaign group 350.org announced the divestment plans of the cities and an array of other institutions ranging from Europe’s largest pension fund Allianz to the London School of Economics.

California might not be a country, but it is acting like one, given the way its politicians are planning to hobnob with world leaders at the international climate talks in Paris. And its presence – with Gov. Jerry Brown, eight members of the legislature, and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger all there at various times this week – comes with a message: The world can take a few lessons from the Golden State. 

PPIC’s December 2015 Statewide Survey found that a majority of Californians (57%) view global climate change as a very serious problem; only 45% of adults nationwide expressed this view in a spring 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center. Indeed, Californians are relatively likely to say global climate change is a very serious problem compared to residents of the Group of Eight nations surveyed by Pew (56% France, 55% Germany, 55% Italy, 51% Canada, 45% Japan, 45% US, 41% United Kingdom, 33% Russia).

LE BOURGET, France — There is no question that the three-year-old movement to persuade pension funds, universities, philanthropists and other groups to divest from fossil-fuel companies is gaining momentum.

But a closer look at a much-hailed announcement on Wednesday — that total divestment commitments had reached $3.4 trillion in assets under management — suggests that the figure may not be as meaningful as it would first appear.

California will have a massive footprint at the United Nations summit on climate change in Paris, a symbol of the state’s political commitment to fighting global warming and the business interest of companies that can benefit from clean-energy policies.

The decision by many of California’s most powerful leaders to decamp across the Atlantic Ocean shows how stemming greenhouse gas emissions is viewed as both an environmental imperative and a potential economic boost for the state.

The seventh largest economy in the world has “de-linked carbon from GDP,” says Kevin de León, president pro tem of the California Senate. De León led the effort in the California Senate to pass a resolution to divest two of the world’s largest pension funds from fossil fuels: CalPERS and CalSTRS, the California Public Employees Retirement System and California State Teachers’ Retirement System. Together the two funds represent nearly $500 billion in assets. California is in its fifth year of a massive drought, de León notes, and has faced devastating forest fires linked to climate change.