By a decree in 2000, Slovenia has been divided into 12 statistical regions (NUTS-3 level), which are grouped in two cohesion regions (NUTS-2 level). In the field of regional development, the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology is responsible for the system and legislation in the field of harmonious regional development, preparation of the national development programme and the coordination of the 12 regional development programmes. Their mission is the promotion of sustainable development in the widest sense of the word which activates the potentials of the Slovenian regions and does not reduce the resources and development potentials of the future generations.

• The competences and tasks of local authorities are determined by the Local Self-Government Act. Municipalities have regulatory and management functions with respect to provision of environmental services (e.g. water supply and sanitation, waste collection and disposal, protection against noise).
• Municipal communities may also adopt their own environmental protection programmes, while larger urban communities are obliged to do so (The Environmental Protection Act, 2006). In 2007, the Ministry for Environment and Spatial Planning issued recommendations to the local municipalities for preparation of their environmental protection programmes. The document was designed in the participatory process.
• In the Recommendations to the local municipalities in preparing local programmes for environmental protection the use of indicators at three levels is recommended:
  • The environmental indicators
  • The indicators for the operational goals
  • The indicators for monitoring the implementation of the measures.

As regards Local Agenda 21: according to the survey conducted in 2010 by the NGO Union of Environmental Movements of Slovenia (ZEG), almost 25 % of the participating local communities (46) had adopted guidelines or a programme for implementation of sustainable development.