Celebrating the Community Climate Action Plan Programme.

After three years our Scottish Government funded Community Climate Action Plan programme is coming to a close. It has been an honour to work with the nine communities who were part of the programme.

Our pilot for this programme began in late 2020 with two communities Tayvallich and Kirriemuir before seven more communities joined the programme the following year. These communities were Arbroath, Ferguslie Park, Islay and Jura, Knoydart, Newcastleton, Pollokshields and Shotts. The communities all underwent a series of workshops that covered climate science, inspirational case studies and a range of climate actions that communities could take that would be relevant for their community.

As a result, all nine communities created Community Climate Action Plans and have made a start on community-led climate action.

Shelley Hague, from Arbroath said “Arbroath FC Community Trust have really valued the support from Keep Scotland Beautiful in developing an action plan for Arbroath – this has given us the opportunity to engage with local people on how to preserve our amazing environment”.

Craig Bridges, from Shotts said “The Shotts community has really enjoyed being involved in the CCAP programme, the sessions with Keep Scotland Beautiful have helped us to map and develop actions to help Shotts build a resilient future in response to the climate crisis. It was a great programme bringing together residents and community projects and our new CCAP is a foundation for many great projects to be taken forward in the near future.

Terry McTernan, from Ferguslie Park said “The programme allowed Ferguslie Park to demonstrate, pulled all together in one framework, how it was all relevant, not just relevant to climate change but relevant to local people needs and the aspirations of the community as a whole and how every different part of the community has a part to play in that”.

Heather Ashworth, our Project Officer, said “I have really enjoyed being a part of the Community Climate Action Plan Programme. It has been inspiring to watch the communities progress. I hope that we can have the opportunity to work with other communities to build climate action plans in the future”.

At Keep Scotland Beautiful we want to continue working with communities to create community climate action plans. If you are interested in finding out more, please get in touch at info@keepscotlandbeautiful.org.