Carbon neutral islands - core islands
The Carbon Neutral Islands (CNI) programme is a project, established in 2021, aiming to support six islands to become carbon neutral by 2040.
The CNI project demonstrates the low-carbon energy potential of islands as hubs of innovation in relation to renewable energy and climate change resilience. Work undertaken through the project has positively impacted on island economies and general wellbeing by improving facilities and investing in these communities.
The project has been driven by three key principles.
- alignment - the project aims to align with existing island-based climate change efforts
- justice and fairness - the project supports islands to become carbon neutral in a just and fair way
- replicability - all Scottish islands stand to benefit from the project through the sharing of good practice
The six core islands included in the CNI project are:
- Barra
- Great Cumbrae
- Hoy
- Islay
- Raasay
- Yell
In November 2024 we published a progress report for the project. To build on these successes, we followed this up with a Financing Roadmap, published in May 2025, which set out how future initiatives under the project to be taken forward over the coming years.
Project funding
Throughout the life of the CNI Project, the Scottish Government has allocated funding each year to ensure the communities can drive forward climate action. This has enabled the employment of Community Development Officers (CDOs) through local anchor organisations, who have used their local expertise to lead the project on the ground. The CDOs have acted as a vital link between the government and communities by building engagement and developing key project outputs.
Each year to date, the islands have also received direct capital allocations since 2024 and 2025. As well as the option to bid in to a CNI Capital Fund which provides funding to undertake larger-scale decarbonisation projects on these islands. Projects funded include: the installation of solar PV on buildings in Millport, removal of invasive rhododendron in Raasay and wide-ranging work to decarbonise community spaces in Islay, amongst many others.
Wider islands network
A key aim of the project has always been to ensure that all Scottish islands will benefit through the good practices developed by the core project islands. In order to share these benefits, the Scottish Government is working closely with Community Energy Scotland to support a wider network of Scotland’s islands to undertake work to decarbonise including developing climate change action plans, producing carbon audits and developing projects for capital funding.
The network extends throughout Scotland’s islands including:
- Sanday
- Eday
- Stronsay
- North Ronaldsay
- Westray
- Papay
- Shapinsay
- Colonsay
- Tiree
- Uist
- Lewis
- Bressay
- Luin