The biannual NESS Research Conferences have become a valued tradition. From a relatively humble beginning in the early 1990's, these conferences have grown to become truly international events. The Nordic region shares democratic and social values and at the same time has, to a large extent, the same environmental challenges.In 2007, it is twenty years since the Brundtland-commission came with the report "Our common future". They launched the most common definition of sustainable development and, as a consequence, gave the global perspective in environmental policy its absolute breakthrough.Twenty years later, this perspective has become even more relevant. Nature consists of common-pool resources, and environmental problems are border crossing. The 8 th NESS conference in Oslo, Norway June 18-20.looked into how the international community, nations and local communities meet common challenges on the environmental area. Furthermore, we discussed how the internationalisation of environmental politics creates challenges, constraints and opportunities on the local, national and global level.These themes provided a good starting point for interesting discussions and new acquaintances. The conference gathered approximately 80 researchers from the Nordic countries, the Netherlands and Germany.

The biannual NESS Research Conferences have become a valued tradition. From a relatively humble beginning in the early 1990's, these conferences have grown to become truly international events. The Nordic region shares democratic and social values and at the same time has, to a large extent, the same environmental challenges.In 2007, it is twenty years since the Brundtland-commission came with the report "Our common future". They launched the most common definition of sustainable development and, as a consequence, gave the global perspective in environmental policy its absolute breakthrough.Twenty years later, this perspective has become even more relevant. Nature consists of common-pool resources, and environmental problems are border crossing. The 8 th NESS conference in Oslo, Norway June 18-20.looked into how the international community, nations and local communities meet common challenges on the environmental area. Furthermore, we discussed how the internationalisation of environmental politics creates challenges, constraints and opportunities on the local, national and global level.These themes provided a good starting point for interesting discussions and new acquaintances. The conference gathered approximately 80 researchers from the Nordic countries, the Netherlands and Germany.

Implementing Swedish climate policy through local government -Learning from municipal climate policy forerunners By Björn Forsberg .

Sustainable development is a concept few would disagree with at a general level, but is contested when put into actual practice. How is sustainable urban development discussed, defended and even coopted by actors in urban development? What is the actual urban development compared with the ideal? How useful are models and ideals in environmental policy-making? Urban governance in the Nordic countries has been marked by deregulation, privatisation and market solution. At the same time ecosystem management and the need for cross-sectoral and cross-boundary institutions have been underlined. What are the challenges, constraints and opportunities following from these trends in urban regions? New technology and urbanisation (both in terms of land-use and life-style) represent transport changing drivers with possibly environmentally friendly consequences. A new societal and political preoccupation with climate, energy and health issues might promote a more sustainable mobility pattern. However, the 'sustainable mobility' conceptualisation demands integrative policy measures and analytical planning tools to grasp -and communicate -the relationships and reduce the sustainable mobility complexity -across its causes, changes and consequences. The papers discuss the challenges, constraints and opportunities following from trends in urban regions and various societal (economic, political, social and cultural) drivers as important "policy and planning" challenges for a more sustainable mobility.

Debates about sustainable development are increasingly dominated by questions of how to secure values such as participation, representation, accountability and legitimacy in global environmental governance. The participation of non-state actors, such as business and civil society, is regarded as critical for the effective implementation of sustainable development policies in the EU, UN and various multi-level governance arrangements. The trans-formation of political authority through the emergence of new forms of post-sovereign power (such as private governance and public-private partnerships), makes an assessment of the effectiveness and accountability of these networked governance structures important. How can democratic legitimacy, participation and accountability be secured without compromising effective environmental governance and well-functioning policies? The workshop includes papers on the creation of more effective and legitimate multi-governance arrangements in various policy domains.