LÁSZLÓ FODOR ENVIRONMENTAL TOOLS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN HUNGARY (AN OVERVIEW) 1 Although local governments possess limited autonomy in Hungary, they play a significant role in environmental policy. Apart from fulfilling mandatory tasks, such as waste management, they face environmental challenges relating to other activities such as urban development. They adopt strategies and regulations, exercise public authority, enter into contracts, and organize public services in order to protect the environment. This essay demonstrates that the scope of discretion of local governments is legally limited; nonetheless, some environmental considerations do not play a role due to lack of interest and knowledge. Based on questionnaires, case studies and interviews as well as on the analysis of the central regulations, the most important tools are introduced from an environmental law point of view. 1. Introduction Protection and preservation of local interests and values against either local or global negative phenomena (be it environmental, economic, social, or other) is one of the key elements of sustainable development. Significant documents aim at determining the global framework of sustainability-oriented policies such as Agenda 21, Millennium Development Goals, or Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development, which also highlight the significance of the local level (Horváth Zs. 2016). Here, we wish to focus on environmental sustainability and issues strictly related to it nowadays; so, the other pillars of sustainable development will not form part of the current essay. Numerous actors can take actions at the local level (local interests, urban policies) such as the inhabitants (voters) of the settlement (part of a settlement, a multi-household building) and their associations, local property owners by the harmonized utilization of the land or by shooting on the basis of a lease, students of an educational institution (e.g. the Student Association of the University of 1 The study is part of the “K 115530 ny. sz.” research project and was supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (“Roles and instruments of local governments in the realization of ecological sustainability”).