First grants from National Lottery-funded Climate Action Fund announced

The grants are the first to be announced as part of the ten-year £100m National Lottery-funded Climate Action Fund.

Fourteen grants have been announced, including almost £1.6m to Middlesbrough Environment City Trust, and £2.1m to the Women’s Environmental Network Trust and London Leap. They include both large-scale partnerships grants and development grants, which fund emergent ideas and projects that need more time to develop partnerships, engage widely or test approaches and learn from them and both are members of the Sustainable Food Places network.

The National Lottery Community Fund will use learning from this first round of funding to help shape what happens next, and will test and learn throughout the programme.

Middlesbrough Environment City Trust will use the money it has been awarded in its work across sustainable food, transport, domestic energy use, waste and natural environment, with the aim of raising greater awareness of sustainable living and help to reduce the town’s carbon footprint. The project will focus on empowering young people to address climate change, through educational workshops and individual climate action in their own communities.

Mark Fishpool, Director of Middlesbrough Environment City, said: “This new grant from the Climate Action Fund is fantastic news. With the shared enthusiasm and commitment of partners including Middlesbrough Council and Thirteen Housing Group, this is our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engage local communities and young people in taking action to address climate change and create a sustainable future for our town.”

The Women’s Environmental Network Trust, in partnership with London Leap, will use its funding to run a range of community food projects to deliver a sustainable food system across Tower Hamlets in London. The programme will set up community hubs across the borough to encourage food growing, set up community gardens, hold food co-ops, and explore ways of reducing plastic waste.

Read more in the UK Fundraising news pages.