This paper argues that the inadequacies of the international inter-state climate change negotiating processes create a pressing need for innovative modes of governance, and it proposes the construction of a transnational climate change regime (TCCR). The regime would forge stronger cross-border links among non-state actors and organisations, allowing them to address climate issues in a coordinated and collaborative manner. It would operate at multiple levels of authority and scale, enabling transnational institutions to directly engage and address intra-governmental, sub-state and societal actors within countries. In this way the regime would bypass the governments of recalcitrant states, and states lacking governance capacity. The paper concludes that a TCCR is not a panacea, but it provides a feasible way to bypass recalcitrant states and fill governance gaps. By managing states, it can promote more robust international processes, strengthening global climate governance as a whole.