Kommunerna och klimatpolitiken - ett exempel på tredje generationens politikområden

Abstract

Local government and climate protection policy - a case of the third generation policyfields. The aim of the overview article is to encircle a research field focusing the role of local government in the Swedish national climate protection policy. First, the policy area of climate protection is historically identified as a part of a third generation policy areas. Secondly, relating to contemporary governance literature some steering measurements are presented. There is thus an increasing steering complexity containing hierarchical, market-based and network based steering. Thirdly, the role of local government is discussed in terms of reasons for engaging or not engaging in climate protection work. Political, institutional, financial and professional aspects are considered important in order to explain variations in municipal climate protection activities. Finally some research questions are put forth, such as how and why municipal leaders are handling uncertainty in certain ways, municipal leaders as network managers and local climate protection policy-making and implementation from perspectives of learning and democracy.