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The City of Edinburgh Council has awarded a total of £140,000 to a range of community and voluntary groups to implement projects related to climate change.
The recipients of the Edinburgh Community Climate Fund (ECCF) were decided by vote, and eight different groups from across the city are to be awarded funding for their projects. There were 2,510 voters who cast 10,025 votes in total during the ballot process.
The successful projects, as voted for by the people of Edinburgh, are listed below:
• Lauriston Farm's Community Outdoor Kitchen received 417 votes and was awarded funding of £20,000.
• EdinBRIC's, Building Bricks 4 EdinBRIC received 387 votes and was awarded funding of £20,000.
• Cargo Bike Movement's Food Sharing Project received 354 votes and was awarded funding of £20,000.
• Fresh Start's Starter Packs received 338 votes and was awarded funding of £20,000.
• SHRUB's, Wee Spoke Hub received 327 votes and was awarded funding of £20,000.
• Rhyze Mushrooms, Micro Mushroom Farms for 3 Community Cafes received 325 votes and was awarded funding of £9,990.
• The Edinburgh Remakery's, Tech Donation Boxes for Schools received 265 votes and was awarded funding of £20,000.
• Porty Community Energy and the Tool Library's, Cosy Homes and Cargo Bikes received 264 votes and was awarded funding of £10,010 (partial funding to be offered).
The ECCF received fantastic applications from no less than 56 community groups across the city.
Due to the high number of proposals submitted, £40,000 worth of extra funding was exceptionally made available in addition to the original £100,000, to allow as many projects to go ahead as possible. Given the high quality of the remaining projects that applied for funding, work will be undertaken to signpost groups to other opportunities to progress their ideas where possible.
The initiative was designed to support the delivery of the Council's climate change targets together with providing learning to inform the wider approach to participatory budgeting (PB). Participatory budgeting is a way for citizens to have a direct say on how money is spent. In Edinburgh, PB has been used as an approach to distribute funding since 2010.
The Edinburgh PB Framework was approved in 2021 which included a commitment to a number of PB initiatives including running a green PB, the ECCF, for the first time this year.
The ECCF has provided £140,000 of one-off funding which is available for local groups to undertake projects which align with the objectives of the Edinburgh Climate Strategy and goal of becoming a net-zero city by 2030.
Council Leader Cammy Day said: "The Edinburgh Community Climate Fund is a very welcome approach which recognises the importance of sharing responsibility for decision-making with representatives from local communities.
"We have a bold and ambitious plan to become a net-zero city by 2030. Our citizens and communities should rightly be at the heart of this. We hope that through this exercise we have provided an opportunity for communities to both identify problems and design and implement solutions. I very much celebrate this innovative approach to working with communities.
"A huge thanks to everyone who took part. We very much look forward to seeing the projects progress and hope that the community will enjoy the benefits from this exercise."
Criteria for the ECCF are set out below:
• Creating opportunities for community leadership and learning on climate change.
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions within communities and contributing to the net-zero agenda for Edinburgh.
Generating sustainable projects for the benefit of local people to build resilience or adapt to climate change within communities.
• Building relationships between neighbourhoods of different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds to work together on just, equitable and accessible climate and resilience activities contributing to the city's net zero agenda, also ensuring that activities work towards reducing or removing barriers for disabled people in the transition to net-zero.
