National Lottery Community Fund awards £20m in climate change grants

The National Lottery Community Fund has awarded £19.5m in grants to local projects and community organisations fighting climate change and reducing environmental damage across the UK.

Distributed over the past four months, National Lottery funding has been allocated to community projects focused on environmental sustainability in key areas such as energy reduction, food production, biofriendly transport, waste management and recycling, as well as securing communities’ natural environment.

The 23 projects, from Cumbria to Cornwall and Glasgow to Gwynedd, are the first to receive money from the lottery-funded ‘Climate Action Fund’ – the 10-year, £100m lottery fund established to directly support community-led organisations fighting the climate emergency.

Nine grant holders were announced on 1 December, while the other 14 were revealed in August this year. They will work together to share learning and become catalysts for broader and transformative change.

Nick Gardner, Head of Climate Action at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “From 25 years of funding environmental projects, we know that local community action can deliver positive environmental impacts alongside additional benefits for people to reap.

“This year we have been reminded that communities are best placed to understand their places and spaces, and so often play a vital role in responding in a crisis.

“Thanks to National Lottery players, communities across the UK will be able to demonstrate what is possible when people take the lead in tackling climate change. This funding will bring people together so they can learn from each other and have an impact within and beyond their communities.”

The projects include large scale schemes delivered by local partnerships, as well as smaller development grants, which will see lottery funding used for emerging ideas to engage different communities and to test new approaches.

The National Lottery Community Fund will use learning from this funding to help shape what happens next with the Climate Action Fund and will explore and reflect on ways people and communities take climate action throughout the programme.

The Climate Action Fund is part of The National Lottery Community Fund’s ‘Environment Strategy‘, which has seen significant lottery investment through community-led projects that are focused on activities that not only improve the environment, but use it to enhance the lives of people and communities.

Since April 2013, the Fund has awarded more than £340m to environmental projects, through almost 4,800 grants.

National Lottery players have raised £41bn for more than 565,000 good causes across the UK since 1994, or £30m every week. The lottery plays a critical role in supporting people, projects and communities during these challenging times.

A list of all 23 Climate Action Fund projects can be found here: https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/programmes/climate-action-fund