New North East climate hub to open

Boosted by Scottish Government funding, it'll look to help communities with the transition to net zero and becoming more sustainable.

Author: Lewis MichiePublished 6th Sep 2021

Funding is being spent to create a Hub to help North East communities with the transition to net zero and enable them to become more sustainable and biodiverse.

The North East Scotland Climate Action Network (NESCAN) Hub is being created out of an emerging network of community groups to provide support to their existing work on climate action and develop further initiatives.

This community climate action support and collaboration hub is being funded by the Scottish Government and is one of two regional hub pilot schemes in Scotland.

As Alison Stuart, Director of Aberdeen Climate Action and founder of the NESCAN hub, says “This is really exciting news. The new NESCAN Hub will be able to build upon the fantastic work that Aberdeen Climate Action has been doing for years.

"The funding will allow us to really develop and support community climate action - a well -funded hub with a good staff team and strong links into local and national networks is just what we need.”

“The NESCAN hub will be recruiting staff over the next month so we can hit the ground running and support NESCAN’s current work on COP26.”

NESCAN has a spot in the Green Zone at COP22 in Glasgow on Thursday 4th November, one of only 8 stalls there on the day, and they are determined to take as many people’s visions of their future community with them to share with the world.

“With the NE Scotland Climate Action Network running over 10 community workshops on what people want their communities to look like by 2030, a questionnaire and a school aged COP26 competition, on the same subject, over the next two months, the Hub is going to have its work cut out! And that is just the start.”

Alison added “Additional work will also include the need to find out what community action on biodiversity and sustainability is happening now in the City and Shire and see where the hub can help and be responsive to local needs.

What we want to do is plug the support and knowledge gaps and ensure that communities have all round support to confidently deliver successful projects and make their communities better places to live, work and play in”.

Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport Michael Matheson said:

“We are proud to be supporting local communities to take action to tackle climate change. By funding Scotland’s pathfinder Community Climate Action Hubs, we will enable communities to transition to low carbon living while also becoming more resilient.

"These hubs will also encourage collaboration between communities, helping to bring people together in their efforts to tackle climate change.”

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