What we do / Community Climate Action

Community Climate Action

Pioneering bold and fair community-led climate action in Bristol.

Supporting communities to lead their response to the climate crisis

The Community Climate Action Project is an ambitious, citywide programme funded by the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund. It demonstrates the important role communities can play in achieving the city’s climate and nature ambitions, whilst also improving people’s quality of life.

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Bristol’s first community climate action plans

A key element of the Community Climate Action Project is the coproduction of community climate action plans which respond to both social and climate priorities. The plans are developed through community engagement with diverse communities across the city.

Bristol’s first community climate action plans were developed in neighbourhoods experiencing inequality and disadvantage, along with the communities of Disabled people and refugees in the city. Leading climate action at a community level provides opportunities to improve the lives of local people and ensure the needs of Bristol’s diverse communities are better represented as the city responds to the climate and nature crises.

Two people looking at a big piece of paper

Eastside Community Trust

Ashley Community Housing, Ambition Lawrence Weston, Bristol Disability Equality Forum, Eastside Community Trust, Heart of BS13 and Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust led an in-depth community engagement process to coproduce their community climate action plans.

Supported by Bristol Climate and Nature Partnership, Bristol City Council and the Centre for Sustainable Energy, the community organisations hosted accessible climate conversations exploring the themes of transport, energy, food, waste, nature, buildings, jobs/economy and inequality. These conversations enabled each community to create a unique set of climate priorities as part of a comprehensive community climate action plan.

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Read Bristol’s first community climate action plans

Bristol’s Disabled people

Bristol Disability Equality Forum led an in-depth community engagement process with Disabled people living in Bristol to coproduce their community climate action plan, which includes a unique set of climate priorities and actions for their community.

Full community climate action plan

Community summary

Easy Read version

British Sign Language film

Easton & Lawrence Hill

Eastside Community Trust led an in-depth community engagement process with Easton & Lawrence Hill residents to coproduce their community climate action plan, which includes a unique set of climate priorities and actions for their local community.

Full community climate action plan

Community summary

Hartcliffe & Withywood

Heart of BS13 led an in-depth community engagement process with Hartcliffe and Withywood residents to coproduce their community climate action plan, which includes a unique set of climate priorities and actions for their local community.

Full community climate action plan

Community summary

Film version

Lawrence Weston

Ambition Lawrence Weston led an in-depth community engagement process with Lawrence Weston residents to coproduce their community climate action plan, which includes a unique set of climate priorities and actions for their local community.

Full community climate action plan

Community summary

Lockleaze

Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust led an in-depth community engagement process with Lockleaze residents to coproduce their community climate action plan, which includes a unique set of climate priorities and actions for their local community.

Full community climate action plan

Community summary

Refugees & migrants

Ashley Community Housing led an in-depth community engagement process with refugees and migrants living in Bristol to coproduce their community climate action plan, which includes a unique set of climate priorities and actions for their community.

Full community climate action plan

Community summary

Pashto translation

Somali translation

“We want to ensure that climate action reflects the reality of people’s lives. It’s about climate justice – we need to improve people’s quality of life whilst tackling climate change.”

Emily Fifield

Eastside Community Trust

Putting community climate priorities into action

Our community partners are delivering innovative community-led climate action projects responding to specific community priorities identified in their climate action plans.

Ambition Lawrence Weston

Ambition Lawrence Weston are regenerating local green spaces to maximise growing opportunities, giving residents the opportunity and skills to grow and cook their own sustainable fruit and vegetables, reducing food miles, enabling access to lower cost, healthier food options and improving biodiversity locally. Find out more about Grow, Cook, Eat Lawrence Weston and watch their launch film.

Image © Ambition Lawrence Weston

Ashley Community Housing

ACH have created Green Skills for Employment; a new climate learning programme to train refugees and vulnerable migrants about green jobs and the skills and knowledge needed to access them, whilst also establishing a pipeline into skilled employment opportunities. They are also running the Green Growth Accelerator Programme which provides support to encourage refugees and migrant-led businesses to be more sustainable.

Image © ACH

Heart of BS13

Heart of BS13 are reducing carbon emissions from ineffective waste disposal in the community, by pioneering a closed-loop household food waste collection system and attracting economic development to the area. They are also supporting young people to take action on issues that are affecting their local area, such as abandoned shopping trolleys, through the Green Influencers programme. Find out more about the climate action work happening in Hartcliffe.

Eastside Community Trust

Eastside Community Trust are working with Bristol Energy Network to reduce carbon emissions from energy use in homes and community buildings, while improving the resilience of local households and organisations to more extreme temperatures and rising energy prices. Local warm homes champions are developing skills to take steps in their own homes and share what they learn with others in the community along the way. Find out more about Eastside’s energy project.

Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust

Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust are working with local residents, Avon Wildlife Trust and Bristol City Council to rewild Lockleaze, transforming Lockleaze’s 41 acres of greens and grass verges to encourage wildlife and support nature recovery with the support of a Community Ecologist. Find out more about Really Wild Lockleaze.

Community Leadership Panel on Climate and Just Transition

The Community Leadership Panel is a pioneering initiative bringing diverse community insights to strategic climate and nature planning and decision-making in the city.

Present to the panel

Image of the members of the Community Leadership Panel on Climate and Just Transition

Learning and mentoring programme

The learning and mentoring programme supports more Bristol community organisations to codevelop their own community climate action plans. The programme provides a bursary, a series of free workshops, peer mentoring and resources. The current cohort started in April 2023 and will be launching their plans in spring 2024. We will be recruiting six more community organisations in February-March 2024.

Meet the current cohort

Apply to join cohort 3

Photo of the Community Climate Action phase 2 partners

Climate and creativity

Creativity has an important role to play in helping make the climate conversation more relevant and accessible to people and their daily lives. A series of community level and citywide creative commissions, which tap into Bristol’s thriving creative sector, form a key element of the Community Climate Action Project with the aim of engaging more, and more diverse, people with climate and just transition.

View films

Climate and Disability

Running until 2025, the climate and disability programme builds on the pioneering work of members of Bristol Disability Equality Forum and includes a regular Forum bringing together local Disabled people with an interest in climate action, strategic events to influence and shape climate and disability related policy and planning, a disability and energy research programme; a new Inclusive Transport Champion and a commission with two Disabled creatives.

Learn more