Community climate and nature action

Full project title: Community Climate and Nature Action

Duration: 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2028

Project lead for CESR: Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers

Other UWE Bristol researchers:

• Dr Laura de Vito
• Dr Louisa Cockbill
• Greg Harris

Research partners/collaborators:

• Bristol Green Capital Partnership
• The Centre for Sustainable Energy
• Bristol City Council
• West of England Combined Authority

Funder: National Lottery Community Climate Action Fund

This project builds on the success of the Community Climate Action Plans project, led by Bristol Climate and Nature Partnership. 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.

The new project will trial the model in new areas of the West of England from 2025 to 2028, working with community anchor organisations to scale mechanisms and frameworks for community climate and nature action. The funding of £1.75 million from the National Lottery Climate Action Fund 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.

UWE Bristol has been appointed as the evaluation and policy partner. Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers will explore best practices for diverse public engagement to embed citizen preferences in policymaking. Dr Laura de Vito will explore how this form of interconnected governance can scale through local, regional, and national levels of public policy, for wider impact. 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.

• Evaluation report on CCNA model (forthcoming)
• Policy toolkit for scaling nationally (forthcoming)

For further information about the project, please contact Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers (laura.foggrogers@uwe.ac.uk).