Bristol’s trailblazing community-led climate action to expand across the West of England

UWE Bristol has been appointed as the evaluation and policy partner on a project led by Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership which has been awarded £1.75m from the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund to scale up its impact and reach.

Funding for the Community Climate and Nature Project will support and mobilise community-led climate and nature action and leadership across the region. It will also enable advocacy for national policies that better support local action, as well as pathways to citizen-led ground-up action to be better embedded in policymaking, unlocking greater impact both regionally and across the UK.

Over the past five years, the innovative and collaborative initiative has developed a model for how to put communities at the heart of effective climate and nature action. This approach has empowered 17 community organisations in Bristol to co-produce climate action plans tailored to their communities, identifying climate and nature action that will bring social benefits.

Building on this success, the grant will support a further three years of work and extend the project’s reach across the West of England, including to Bath & North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire, and North Somerset. Led by Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership, the initiative will be delivered by 42 partners across the region, including the Centre for Sustainable Energy, Bristol City Council and the West of England Combined Authority.

This next phase of the project will launch in September 2025, and will include funded opportunities for six community organisations across the West of England to co-create community climate action plans, as well as seeing local artists collaborate with communities to explore themes of climate, nature, community and just transition.

UWE Bristol’s involvement in the project will include capturing learnings to champion the vital role of community-led action in driving national progress on climate and nature goals. Dr Laura Fogg Rogers in the Science Communication Unit will explore best practices for diverse public engagement to embed citizen preferences in policymaking. Dr Laura de Vito in the Air Quality Resource Management Centre will explore how this form of interconnected governance can scale through local, regional, and national levels of public policy, for wider impact.

Dr Laura Fogg Rogers, Associate Professor for Engineering in Society said: “Our research indicates that communities need to be engaged in decision-making to enable a just transition to a resilient net zero world. Households and communities need to be empowered to make low-carbon choices and shape climate solutions which address existing inequalities and social issues.

“The Bristol project shows that this model empowers local action, develops community leadership, and builds resilience for climate impacts. We are therefore really excited to be evaluating the project as it expands to the West of England, so we can explore how it can be scaled up to inform local and national policy decisions around climate change.”

UWE Bristol is a founding partner of Bristol Climate and Nature Partnership.

Amy Harrison, Head of Community Partnerships at Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership said: “We’re thrilled that this grant will enable an even more diverse range of communities across the region to take the lead on environmental action in their area. Climate and nature action can bring positive benefits to local people, but this is only possible if they are empowered to shape and guide it. We’re hoping the learning from working with the region’s diverse communities will inform a blueprint for scaling community climate and nature action across the UK.”