‘Think globally and act locally’ is a logic ingrained in environmental governance since the late twentieth century. In recent years, most importantly with the Paris Agreement 2015, plans for just transitions have proliferated and are being enacted at international, regional and local levels. In this paper, we use the Swedish ambition of transitioning to a fossil-free society by 2045 as a starting point, and seek to understand what transition policies mean for municipalities that are tightly intertwined with fossil-intensive industries. In order to identify challenges associated with governance towards fossil freedom at carbon-intensive local levels, we study how transition is perceived in three Swedish industrial towns; Luleå, Lysekil and Slite. Through interviews with local politicians and municipality officials, we analyse the preconditions for governing towards fossil freedom in the context of not only Swedish, but by continuation also the EU and UN transition policies. These challenges concern what role and responsibility different actors have, or can take, for the transition. Our analysis suggests that while there are differences between the towns, actors at the municipal level tend to see limited means for influencing the transition policies that they are subject to. Subsequently, solutions and resources are largely expected to be initiated from external actors, such as the national government and/or the EU.