The first paper addressed the three sectors of the economy — power generation, transportation and buildings — that together are responsible for nearly 70 percent of carbon emissions in the United States, and what must be done to clean them up. In the case of transportation, for instance, Mr. Inslee would mandate all-electric cars by the 2030 model year. The last paper, released only hours before his withdrawal from the race, dealt with agriculture and how farmers can improve land-use practices to reduce emissions from the soil. In between were detailed disquisitions on where he would invest $9 trillion over 10 years to retrofit older buildings, modernize the grid and build green infrastructure; how and when he would phase out fossil fuel production in America (beginning with a swift karate chop to hydraulic fracturing and all fossil fuel subsidies); how he would protect poorer communities and workers who lose their jobs in the decarbonizing process; how he would engage with the rest of the world to bring down global emissions.

If this sounds a bit like last winter’s Green New Deal, it is, but with two very big differences: The Green New Deal was a 14-page congressional resolution full of lofty goals. Mr. Inslee puts substantial policy meat on an aspirational bare-bones outline. Second, unlike the Green New Deal, Mr. Inslee offers a compelling international component that basically reimagines American foreign policy by putting climate change at its very center, and by using all the tools of foreign policy — trade, aid, robust diplomacy — to reward countries that adopt ambitious climate strategies and punish those that don’t.

As an exercise, try to imagine a President Inslee dealing with Brazil’s leadership, which is letting the Amazon burn out of control, or the Australians, who plan to enrich themselves by selling vast quantities of dirty coal to India. Of course, he would quickly reaffirm America’s commitment to the Paris agreement on climate change, which President Trump rejects, so that America could recapture the leadership role it had under President Barack Obama. But he would also demand much of others.

What’s Mr. Inslee to do now? Well, he plans to compete for the office he already holds and will run for a third term as governor of Washington in 2020. Should he win, he will remain, along with New York’s Andrew Cuomo and California’s Gavin Newsom, as one of the three most important leaders of the effort by America’s states and cities to reduce their emissions and compensate for Mr. Trump’s failure at the federal level. But for the moment, he can take satisfaction in what he has left behind: an actual Green New Deal, a guide that’s just waiting for whoever wins the White House (assuming it is not Mr. Trump) to read, to digest and to steal from.