Bristol Community Climate Action is a pioneering and bold five-year project, championing fair community-led climate action across the city. It has been coordinated by Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership, and is being delivered in collaboration with Centre for Sustainable Energy and Bristol City Council, and the climate action partners Bristol Energy Network, Sustrans, Praxis and Avon Wildlife Trust.

The key premise behind Bristol Community Climate Action is that Bristol’s strategic response to climate change and nature breakdown must be informed by the insights and lived experiences of the city’s diverse communities. If not, it risks designing solutions which further compound disadvantage, fail to respond to important social needs, create new barriers or entrench social and political division.

The project has aimed to make three significant impacts:

1. A reduced risk of catastrophic climate change.
2. A just and inclusive transition to net zero.
3. Improved quality of life for local people (e.g. improved health and wellbeing, economic opportunity, resilience, social cohesion and improved biodiversity).

As the project comes to a close, CSE reflects on all that has been achieved across the project’s key strands.

Community climate action plans

A core element of the project has been the development of community climate action plans, spearheaded by 18 grassroots organisations representing communities across the city that experiencing inequality, and have been least represented in the city’s climate conversations, policy and plan making. The community climate action plans outline the social and environmental priorities across these communities, revealed through a process of in-depth engagement by the community organisations. Stakeholders from across the city have also been engaged to ensure the communities’ priorities are connected to existing climate-related schemes and initiatives.

CSE developed carbon footprint information for the 18 organisations using the Impact Community Carbon Calculator. This information can identify the areas where taking action to tackle climate change can make the biggest difference. CSE also provided community maps of data – such as tenure and the energy efficiency of housing – to support with resident engagement and inform potential activities.

The community carbon footprints informed conversations on the varying levels of emissions found in different areas of Bristol, with the communities represented in Bristol Community Climate Action all having lower-than-average carbon footprints. The plans also supported the project’s developing emphasis on tackling social priorities through climate action, rather than a reduction in emissions being the primary focus.

CSE supported the community organisations with training on energy and climate communications, drawing on its own experience in community engagement and current research on effective messaging approaches.

The climate plans not only reveal the communities’ climate-related needs and priorities, but they have also acted as a powerful resource. The communities used these plans to engage with stakeholders and attract funding.

Community projects – turning priorities into action

Another key component of the project has been turning identified priorities into action through an inspiring array of community projects. The community groups created a variety of projects, such as:

• Setting up a community composting social enterprise.
• Tackling community energy concerns through an energy champions and leadership programme.
• Rewilding of green spaces with the support a community ecologist.

CSE developed bespoke carbon monitoring frameworks for each project. There’s clear evidence that these community-led projects deliver strong social and health benefits as well as playing a role in reducing Bristol’s carbon emissions.

Climate and disability

Bristol’s disabled community is both vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and at risk of being negatively impacted by carbon reduction schemes which aren’t designed around their needs. The programme’s Climate and Disability strand has sought to bring to the fore the voice of Bristol’s disabled community in city-wide climate conversations and policy and plan making.

In collaboration with Disability Advocate Emma Geen CSE has developed resources for disabled people and retrofit professionals aimed at ensuring the needs of disabled households are fully integrated into the practice of the retrofit sector.

Community Leadership Panel on Climate Change and Just Transition

The panel has been a pioneering initiative, piloted in 2023 and rolled out in 2024. It brings together insights from, and advocates on behalf of, Bristol’s diverse communities, in the shaping of strategic climate and nature planning and decision-making in the city. The panel has advised on a diversity of city-wide initiatives, from the Keep Bristol Cool Framework, to NHS Bristol’s Healthier Together Green Plan Refresh. Going forward, the project has an ambition to support and inspire the creation of panels elsewhere in England.

Alongside Bristol council, CSE has been an advisor in the development and running of the panel. Further details about the panel can be found on the Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership website.

Other key project strands (where CSE has played a smaller role) include transport, in which a cross-community transport vision and community toolkit have been developed, and a creativity strand, bringing a creative lens into the project’s engagement and dissemination activities through a diversity of creative commissions.