The responsibility of implementing Agenda 21 in Sweden lies, decided by the Swedish ‘riksdag’, the parliament, on the municipalities. This thesis argues that street-level bureaucracies in public administration are of vital importance for the implementation of environmental policies. The purpose of this study was to investigate how two Swedish municipalities work with environmental issues, and from a comparison find out what the reasons behind a successfull implementation are. To fulfill this purpose the following questions were employed:

• Is there any difference between how a big and a small municipality work with environmental issues?

• What reasons could there be for a successfull implementation of environmental policy on the local level?

• How does this concur with previous implementation research and theories on street-level bureaucrats?

The empirical study is based on interviews with people from two Swedish municipalities. The chosen individuals are working with environmental issues in public administration. No major differences were discovered, only that a smaller municipality has less resources for environmental work and therefore is forced to work harder to keep up with a big municipality. The only proven reason for a successfull implementation of environmental policy was the interest, hard work and engagement of the street-level bureaucrats.

Key words: Implementation, municipality, environmental policy, Agenda 21, street-level bureaucrats

Nyckelord: Implementering, kommun, miljöpolitik, Agenda 21, gatubyråkrater