The article aims at clarifying two concepts in their distinction and relationship, self-government and governance. We start by reviewing the main actual uses of both concepts, then we consider a debate deemed relevant for the issue of self-rule, a recent controversy about self-regulation in applied ethics. After having explained what is required if we want to discuss self-rule from a realistic point of view, the paper proceeds with a presentation of environmental governance, clarifying what is meant here by practical philosophy and in general by adaptation to climate change. The paper then examines the particular case of a research-action project in environmental governance treating adaptation to climate change at the regional level, in the Memphrémagog MRC (southern part of Quebec), asking in what sense it is possible to talk about self-rule in that case.