We are over the moon to be part of the successful funding application that gives six Bristol community organisations a leading role in shaping Bristol’s transition to low carbon and climate-resilient city. While we’re working out what a positive transition looks like in Easton and Lawrence Hill. Lockleaze, Lawrence Weston and Hartcliffe will be answering the same question in their pockets of the city, and Bristol Disability Equality Forum and ACH with their communities. The aim is that together we can put the city on the path to becoming carbon neutral by 2030. This project will be supported by three lead programme partners – Bristol Green Capital Partnership, who led the funding bid; Centre for Sustainable Energy; and Bristol City Council.
The project will support community-led climate action, putting local people in the driving seat and empowering them to respond to climate change in their communities.
“We are incredibly excited to be a partner on Bristol’s successful lottery Climate Action Fund bid. Through this project, we will work with as many people in our neighbourhood as possible to create meaningful plans for how we can work collectively to tackle the climate emergency.” Stacy Yelland CEO
We are aiming to enable communities to explore and tackle the issues around climate change set out in the strategy in a way that complements other local priorities, such as COVID-19 recovery, health, increased mobility, warmer homes, social inclusion, better access to services, nature and green space, and skills and employment opportunities.
For more information contact emily@upourstreet.org.uk
Change is in our hands
There is no one-size-fits-all path to zero carbon, and it won’t happen with only one type of person or in one neighbourhood of the city. Every individual, every household, every neighbourhood will have different steps they can take that make sense with their unique circumstances.
With funding from the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund, Eastside Community Trust will be working with the people of Easton and Lawrence Hill to understand what that path could look like for our community.
- Which individual and household actions could have the most impact?
- What larger actions can we take together as a community?
- Are there things we can do together to reduce emissions while also improving health and wellbeing, creating green jobs and reducing household costs?
- And how can we feed into the city, regional and national policy to make sure decisions are made that help us to reduce our emissions while also addressing local issues around health, employment and quality of life?
One of the first steps is to get out (or get on the phone) and talk to people about how they live, work and play in our neighbourhood now. A small team of community researchers will be finding ways to understand more about where and how people spend their time, how they get where they’re going, what they’re trying to do – as well as key challenges they face and what’s most important to them.
A lot of these conversations will be focused on reaching community members who are not typically involved in decision-making, and who could be most affected by the effects of rapid change to make sure these views and experiences are reflected in any solutions we come up with as a community.
We’ll spend the next year listening, sharing ideas, understanding what is most important, talking to experts about what is possible and then feeding all of it into a community climate action plan for East Bristol.
