Community-led climate action

The transition to net zero will impact on people and communities. Encouraging transformational change across all of our communities and supporting them to be climate ready is vital in our just transition to net zero.

Community climate action hubs

In order to provide a strategic regional approach to climate change action, we are supporting a network of regional community climate action hubs with up to £5.5 million in 2024-2025. These hubs are run by local experts connected to community organisations and cross-sector partners, such as councils, health boards, and education providers. They vary in size and scale, and employ different models of working, including partnership models.

The hubs work to:

build awareness of the climate emergency and actions local groups can take
support groups to develop climate action projects
embed climate solutions into local plans
Supporting groups to influence and shape local and national policies
ensure a joined-up approach to tackling climate change at a regional level

What the Climate Action Hubs Do

The Climate Action Hubs network now consists of 24 hubs covering all of Scotland, providing place-based support for communities to take forward climate action initiatives. Each hub empowers local groups by offering training, seed funding, collaboration opportunities, and a platform for sharing knowledge and best practices. The hubs focus on innovation, resilience, and inclusivity in addressing climate challenges, supporting communities in making meaningful contributions to Scotland’s net-zero goals. Contact information for climate action hubs is available.

If you want more information about your area, please email: ClimateChangeEngagement@gov.scot

A Breakdown of funding for hubs is available.

In 2023 we commissioned CAG Consultants to carry out an Independent Evaluation of the two pathfinder climate hubs and develop a monitoring and evaluation framework. Their evaluation report has been published on our website.

The key outcomes established for the hub programme are as follows:

local communities have the confidence and capacity to respond to the climate emergency.
broad collaboration and networking, ensuring the engagement is representative of the local community.
increased community-level adaptation/climate resilient actions.
increased community-level climate mitigation actions.
local communities are empowered to be involved in and influence policy and decision-making.
driving innovations or opportunities that have potential to benefit the wider community at a local or national level.

A full Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning framework and theory of change have been developed and for further information, please contact: ClimateChangeEngagement@gov.scot

Additionally, we commissioned Changeworks to carry out research into similar models in the UK and internationally. Their report has been published on our website.

Climate action towns

Climate Action Towns was a three-year initiative led by Architecture and Design Scotland (2021-2024) aiming to cultivate community-led climate action across nine Scottish towns, providing them with support to develop climate-focused local plans and inclusive engagement for a just transition to net zero.

Communities and wider stakeholders worked together to target local systemic barriers, deliver local plans, enable further collaborative working, and develop methodology for effective engagement and delivery of climate action.

From the place-based approach taken, it was learned that effective climate action is not one-size-fits-all. Each town began at a different stage and brought unique needs and assets to the table. This project highlighted several key themes that were crucial to ensuring the effective implementation of climate initiatives across all locations:

establishing trust and building strong relationships within communities
taking a place-based approach, making climate risks tangible and actionable helps integrate climate action into daily life and planning processes
leadership and collaboration across sectors enable a strong network that is resilient to change
community capacity and cohesion are key to delivering impactful action
embedding climate actions in local plans addresses immediate climate risks and supports broader community needs
dedicated resources enable consistent and impactful action, which can include funding specific roles within development trusts or local authorities

For more information and resources, visit Architecture & Design Scotland’s website:

Climate Challenge Fund

The Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) was delivered by Keep Scotland Beautiful and ran from 2008 until 2022, providing over £110 million to 1150 projects

The projects covered a range of climate action including helping communities to reduce reliance on car travel, cut waste, grow local food, and lower energy use in homes and community buildings.

A review of the fund in 2019 found that whilst the CCF played an important and valued role it needed to be revised leading to the climate action hub programme.

Findings included support for:

the inclusion of adaptation
widening the CCF to include established organisations working with communities
improving strategic and networking opportunities
encouraging shared learning

Academic assessments of the CCF were reviewed alongside literature on other similar community-based sustainability initiatives. The findings were consistent with a number of findings from the review, including support for longer term projects and improved networking opportunities. The literature review also highlighted the need for improved support around the legacy of the projects.

Contact

For more information on our policy supporting community-led climate action, email ClimateChangeEngagement@gov.scot.

Information