This paper recommends ways for government to encourage community-led action on climate change.

Key recommendations:

There are six main ways in which government could galvanise the community-led responses to climate change. These are based on:

• Creating an independent income stream for community-led initiatives
• Building community capacity to develop carbon emission reduction initiatives
• Supporting community-led initiatives as social enterprises
• Sending the right signals – consistency and outcomes
• Scaling-up and replication
• Measuring and recognising success.

Alongside action by government and business, community-led innovation will be central to the UK's ability to achieve its CO2 emission reduction targets. In order to galvanise community-led responses to climate change, government will however need to be more active in creating the conditions within which community leadership can flourish.

This paper draws out the lessons for UK government climate change policy, drawing on communities' experience of Nesta's Big Green Challenge. It proposes a series of practical recommendations by which government could ensure that communities are more willing and able to take action in their own right with respect to climate change.

Author:

Nesta