Big Lottery Fund: Cash boost to make stirling first UK carbon neutral city

STIRLING is aiming to become the UK’s first carbon neutral city thanks to £1.25m in funding announced today from the Big Lottery Fund and the Scottish Government to the community led Going Carbon Neutral Stirling (GCNS) project.

The ambitious project, which is also supported by Stirling Council, aims to work from the grassroots up including local businesses to bring about significant change in the behaviour of every Stirlingshire resident to reduce their carbon footprint and tackle the growing threat of climate change.

This is the first time that any project in the UK has attempted to change carbon-emitting behaviour on such a large scale. GCNS hopes to bring down average annual Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions per head in Scotland from the current level of 12 tonnes* to a sustainable level of one tonne per person, per year.

Speaking on the Kings Knot, in the shadow of Stirling Castle, Dharmendra Kanani, Big Lottery Fund Scotland Director announced £500,000 from the BIG’s Investing in Communities portfolio to support this project. He said, “The ethos of Going Carbon Neutral Stirling is all about local action to bring about significant environmental change by bringing people together and encouraging true community involvement. Ensuring that people from the young to old, from the self employed to large businesses all see where they can play their part in tackling climate change.

“It’s not simply the green credentials of their project which make it so valuable but it’s aspiration to include everyone and belief that it can and will include everyone, bringing together people who perhaps have never met before to make a huge difference. We believe our funding will not only enable the people of Stirling to live a more sustainable lifestyle but also bring communities that perhaps would not have come together before to do so more effectively.”

Announcing the first exemplar project under the new Climate Challenge Fund, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Richard Lochhead MSP said, "I am delighted to announce funding of £750,000 to help Going Carbon Neutral Stirling work with the local community to reduce their carbon footprint. We want Scotland to be part of the global solution to tackling the threat of climate change.

"The Scottish Government with the Scottish Greens has launched the £18.8 million Climate Challenge Fund, to enable communities such as Stirling to take action to make a real difference to the environment, and help achieve an 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050. This is the start of an exciting new era for community empowerment and I'd encourage all those in Scotland who want to make a difference locally and globally to come forward with their ideas."

GCNS will be administered through Keep Scotland Beautiful. The group’s Chief Executive John Summers OBE said, “This project offers an exciting and unique opportunity to engage with the public, businesses and communities across the Stirling area to make a real difference in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The welcome support from the Big Lottery Fund, the Scottish Government and Stirling Council is testimony to the importance of this issue at a national and local level and the opportunity it offers the people in the Stirling area to participate and benefit from a more sustainable lifestyle.”

Stirling Council's Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Environment, Councillor Jim Thomson, said, "Stirling Council is looking forward to working in partnership with Going Carbon Neutral Stirling to deliver this important initiative. The Council has already made a commitment by adopting Sustainability as one of its 3 Strategic Themes and signed up to Scotland's Climate Change Declaration last year. We are working with the Carbon Trust to develop a programme for managing our own carbon emissions and the Going Carbon Neutral in Stirling project will assist us to engage more directly with our communities, both within the Council and in the wider Stirling area."

Supporting today’s announcement Dr Richard Dixon, Director of WWF Scotland said, "WWF Scotland is delighted that Stirling's exciting attempt to become the first Scottish city to go carbon neutral is receiving such widespread support and backing. We know that many communities around Scotland are keen to contribute to the fight against climate change and they can play a very important role in taking practical action to lower their emissions.

"WWF received a terrific response from the public when we visited Stirling recently as part of our campaign to collect consultation responses backing a strong Scottish Climate Change Bill. We look forward to a strong Scottish Climate Change Bill providing an excellent framework which supports policy change and practical action to cut Scotland's emissions by 80% by 2050."

* latest CO2 figures from The Energy Saving Trust – Scottish average annual emissions per capita.


ENDS COPY

Contact Emma Whitfield Senior Press Officer Big Lottery Fund Scotland on:
0141 242 1415 or 07880 737157
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030 Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available at: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to Editors

The Big Lottery Fund rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
• The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004.
• On 1 December 2006 the Big Lottery Fund was officially established by Parliament and at the same time assumed the residual responsibilities of the dissolved National Lottery Charities Board (Community Fund) the New Opportunities Fund, and the Millennium Commission. The Fund is building on the experience and best practice of the merged bodies to simplify funding in those areas where they overlap and to ensure Lottery funding provides the best possible value for money.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to Good Causes. As a result, over £19.5 billion has now been raised and more than 250,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.

SCOTLAND
The Scotland Committee, led by Chair Alison Magee, has been making Big Lottery Fund decisions on Scottish projects since March 2007. As well as taking devolved decisions on Lottery spending, the Committee has and will continue to play a strategic role in the future direction of BIG in Scotland.

The Big Lottery Fund has £257 million to invest in Scotland’s communities before 2009 as follows:
£202 million for Investing in Communities
£25 million for the Young People’s Fund
£30 million for Awards for All

*Investing in Communities is the Big Lottery Fund Scotland’s funding portfolio which consists of four investment areas:
Growing Community Assets, to help communities obtain, improve, develop, manage, sustain and protect assets that will help them become stronger and more sustainable.
Life Transitions to support people at times of change in their lives – at different life stages and in different circumstances.
Supporting 21st Century Life to provide support to people and communities to deal with the pace of change, enjoy positive relationships, improve quality of life, and establish connections across 21st century society.
Dynamic and Inclusive Communities (DINC) to fund improvements to the capacity and infrastructure of national, intermediary or second tier organisations, to allow communities to engage in civic society and influence civic processes so that they can build strong and more inclusive local communities.

The Scottish Government will be making £750,00 available to Going Carbon Neutral Stirling over the next three years through the Climate Challenge Fund. The Climate Challenge Fund is open to Scottish-based, not-for-profit distributing community groups to support community-led action to reduce emissions . A total of £18.8 million will be available over the next three financial years. The fund will award grants to projects which meet set criteria up to a maximum of £1 million. There is no minimum amount which communities can apply for. The Climate Challenge Fund, which will support community-led action to reduce emissions, was officially launched on June 3 by Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Richard Lochhead and Patrick Harvie, Scottish Green MSP. For more information go to: http://www.itsourfuture.co.uk/climate_challenge_fund

The administrator of the fund (Keep Scotland Beautiful) will act as the single point of contact for community groups, and will guide community groups in developing their application for support and direct groups to appropriate members of the supporting alliance for further advice, or if appropriate, to form delivery partnerships. For further information on the Climate Challenge Fund contact Keep Scotland Beautiful 01786 471333 or email ccf@ksbscotland.org.uk www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/ccf