National Lottery funnels £14m into community-led climate action projects

A range of green projects geared at galvanising community climate action around the UK have been awarded a share of £14m announced by the National Lottery today. 

The 14 sustainability projects to have secured funding, which marks the first portion awarded through National Lottery's £100m Climate Action Fund, include local food, farming, transport, domestic energy use, waste reduction, the natural environment and behaviour change initiatives.

The funding includes six large-scale partnership grants if between £1.3m and £2.5m in size, and eight development grants geared at "emergent ideas and projects" that range from £197,000 to £373,000, National Lottery said. 

Organisations securing support for initiatives include Wildlife Trusts of Wales, Cumbria Action for Sustainability, Middlesbrough Environment Trust, and the Women's Environmental Network Trust.

The aim of the Climate Action Fund, which was launched in July 2019 by National Lottery's Community Fund, is to support local projects and help "communities be the catalysts for broader transformative change".

Over the next ten years, National Lottery expects to provide £100m for community-led climate action projects across the UK. That comes in addition to more than £340m National Lottery claims to have handed to environmental projects across 4,800 grants since April 2013 through its Community Fund.

"We know that local community action is at the heart of delivering solutions that not only minimise the impact on the environment, but also offer additional benefits that people and communities can reap," John Rose, director and environment lead at the National Lottery Community Fund, said. "In the last few months we have been reminded that communities truly understand their places and spaces, and so often play a vital role in responding in a crisis, and we're confident with people in the lead communities can tackle climate action and responding to the climate emergency."

Among the successful bidders, Middlesbrough Environment City Trust, has scooped £1.6m to fund work geared at driving down the town's carbon footprint by raising greater awareness about sustainable living, while the Women's Environmental Network Trust clinched £2.1m to run a range of community food projects across the borough of Tower Hamlets in London.

In addition, Duchy College in Cornwall has been awarded £1.3m to help the local farming community shift towards net zero emissions, while a development grant of £200,000 has been handed to Community Foundation for Northern Ireland support sustainable farming in Derry.

Mark Fishpool, director of Middlesbrough Environment City Trust, hailed the funding as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engage local communities and young people in taking action to address climate change and create a sustainable future for our town".

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