Climate Challenge Fund
The Climate Challenge Fund gives communities, through individual community groups and community planning partners, the ability to implement actions to reduce their carbon emissions.
Within the total the allocation for the fund is £8.8 million in 2008-09, £5 million in 2009-10 and £5 million in 2010-11, i.e. a total of £18.8 million.
Open for Applications
The Climate Challenge Fund is open for applications. A community group must be the lead player in a project, and projects must include a measurable and significant reduction in carbon emissions, with a positive lasting legacy beyond the three years of the funding programme.
The Climate Challenge Fund Grants Panel is expected to meet three times annually to review applications for funding and to allocate funds to communities who meet the set criteria. Members of the Grants Panel have been selected for their knowledge and expertise in community action and carbon reduction.
Members of Climate Challenge Fund Grants Panel are:
(Chair) Simon Pepper - Environmental consultant
Roger Kelly - Convener of the Royal Town Planners Institute in Scotland
Karen Grant - Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and community activist
Osbert Lancaster - Footprint Consulting Limited
David Spaven - Deltix Transport Consulting
Councillor Alison Hay - Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA)
Lloyd Austin - RSPB
Mike Robinson - Stop Climate Chaos
Pauline Gallacher - Board member, Architecture and Design Scotland
By the closing date for the first assessment of Climate Challenge Fund applications (July 25, 2008), Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) had received 71 expressions of interest and 19 full applications. The Grants Panel for the Fund met for the first time on August 13, 2008 in Stirling to consider the 19 applications.
On June 12 the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment Richard Lochhead MSP launched Going Carbon Neutral Stirling, the first Climate Challenge Fund exemplar project. Media coverage following this drew attention to the Climate Challenge Fund.
The Climate Challenge Fund was highlighted in the coverage in "The Scotsman" newspaper on Saturday July 12 on the response and awareness in the six months since The Scotsman and the Scottish Government launched the "Let's Go Green Together" campaign.
Ministers and officials have been promoting the Climate Challenge Fund at events, making presentations to audiences from different sectors.
Officials have engaged with a number of stakeholders about the Fund. Both National Parks are interested in working to promote the Fund and offer suitable venues for events. The Scottish Government is organising road shows in the Parks for September 2008 to offer communities in these areas an opportunity to raise questions and learn more about the Fund in question and answer sessions and workshops.