Mellan det lokala och det globala : klimat, kommuner, nätverk

Sammanfattning: Between the local and the global: climate, local governments, networks The notion of an ongoing global warming is shared by a large number of researchers and decision-makers around the world. Through the act of signing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change a majority of the world's naitons have accepted the idea of human induced climate change, and to develop national climate change mitigation programmes. The Kyoto protocol later quantified the commitments made by the nations. The issue of climate change has become a political issue of its own. In the European Union as well as in Sweden and other nations, climate mitigation goals, programmes and strategies are developed. This is also the situation on the local level, for example in Swedish municipalities, which is the context of this study. Local goverment is an important actor in climate mitigation, both as a political organization in its own right and as an arena involving actors from different sectors in society. Climate change mitigation measures conducted by local governments re partly shaped by national grant programmes. The study shows, however, that the local context - the palce - with its natural prerequisites, economic structures and composition of actors, is just as decisive for how the local climate policies are developed and implemented. It also shows that although responsibility for the environment is an important driving force in local climate mitigation there are at least two other dirving forces; local and regional development and the symbolic valute of being in the forefront of climate change mitigation. Another arena where actors in climate change mitigation meet is the network. Together wiht actors from different sectors and levels many municipalities participate in various networks, with local to global extension. The fact that the netsorks like climate change in inself transcends political and administrative borders, is alsö addressed theoretically in the study, focusing upon the concepts of re-scaling, multilevel governance and network governance, which constitute the theoretichal fram of the thesis.