The Edinburgh Community Climate Fund

Help make Edinburgh a greener city.

The City of Edinburgh Council has set up the £100,000 Edinburgh Community Climate Fund to help communities to develop ideas and projects aimed at making Edinburgh a greener city. The fund is there to support community projects to reduce household carbon emissions, encourage talk about climate change and support the city’s net zero effort.

Local communities and groups will have the chance to have a direct say on how the money is spent.

We’re inviting groups to apply for up to £20,000 for community projects that they can complete within 12 months, don’t duplicate a Council service and do one or more of the following:

create opportunities for community leadership and learning on climate change
reduce greenhouse gas emissions within communities and add to Edinburgh’s net-zero effort
are sustainable and help local people adapt to and build up resilience to climate change in their communities
help form relationships between neighbourhoods of different backgrounds, cultures and economic means so they can work together on climate change and resilience activities. These should be open to all and help reduce or remove barriers for disabled people on the journey to net-zero.

Ideas will then go to a public vote to decide which projects get funding.

How the fund works:

The fund is using a participatory budgeting approach

Community groups come up with ideas for spending the money
We post project applications which meet the fund’s conditions on the project and ideas page
Local people vote for the ideas they support (Voting will take place between 3 March and 12 March)
The ideas with the most support win funding to go ahead
Local people can go online to find out the results of the public vote
At the end of each project, groups share how their projects have benefited Edinburgh’s communities and made the city greener.

We are encouraging groups to promote the Edinburgh Community Climate Fund to our local communities.

Who can apply?

This fund is only for Edinburgh groups with local climate projects in Edinburgh that support the Council’s net-zero target and 2030 Edinburgh Climate Strategy. Any Edinburgh based community, voluntary or non-profit organisation can apply for up to £20,000 to put ideas into action.

You can still apply if you’re a member of an Informal group. However, you will need to work in partnership with a parent organisation to submit your project application.

If you’re not sure, or would like to discuss your project, please contact us at communityplanning@edinburgh.gov.uk

What kind of ideas are we looking for?

Ideas can be large or small and can apply as long as they are in line with at least one of the projects aims. Here are just some of the possible ideas that people might have:

energy information roadshows or services
advice, support or education sessions on climate change
free community cafes or cookery projects
walking, wheeling or cycling groups which encourage people use their cars less
advice and support to help people adapting homes to save energy
improve local greenspaces including new community gardens/allotments, wildflower planting, bird nesting and bat boxes
encouraging people to share transport shopping buses or carpools

How to apply

The fund is open for applications on 13 January 2023. You can find more details about how to apply on the application process page. The deadline for applications is 12 February 2023. The projects with the most votes will receive grants and you’ll be able to find out about them on the project and ideas page.