Community Nature and Climate Action
People & nature working together for a fairer, greener future
H&CCA are part of Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership’s Community Climate Action Project Learning and Mentoring Programme 2024/25 to create a community climate action plan. The Community Climate Action Project is an ambitious, citywide programme funded by the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund.It demonstrates the important role communities can play in achieving the city’s climate and nature ambitions, whilst also improving people’s quality of life.
Anna, our engagement lead, attended monthly sessions learning & mentoring sessions covering the 8 themes included in the plan. These sessions included presentations by experts on the themes and discussions among Cohort 3. The 2024/25 cohort comprised Bristol Older People's Forum, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Shirehamption Community Action Forum, Rising Arts Agency and One Green Kitchen.
Following 10 months of community engagement and analysis of all your responses to the themes, we have now produced our Community Climate Action Plan and priorities we are excited to share these with you in their draft versions
To produce this plan, we invited people who live & work in Hotwells & Harbourside and Cliftonwood to come to creative events, complete our online survey and respond to the themes set out by the programme: nature, transport, adaptation & resilience, food, business/economy, energy, waste/resources and housing & buildings.
We launched the engagement at our Big Golden Birthday Picnic on June the 22nd and over the following months, as well as the events below we had many conversations with many people to establish what you felt was important about our environment and what actions you thought could be taken.
Our first Community Conversation event took place at the amazing Underfall Yard visitor centre on Monday 23rd October. Thanks to all the people who braved the atrocious weather to come and talk to us about what they think about the projects climate themes and wisdom about our local wildlife. Tess, a former nature documentary maker has noticed that we have less house martins this year and there's was lots of discussion about flood prevention and climate inappropriate development.
Community Conversation #2 We Are Making a Big Green Neighbourhood Map was on Saturday 19th October at Spike Island. Artists worked with over 30 people of all ages to create a large scale map using printing, sculpture, drawing and found objects.
Community Conversation #3 Utopian Futures was on 25th November at Watershed and included a fun workshop run by Emma Geen and James Ward. "The event transported us to a future Hotwells, Harbourside and Cliftonwood of vibrant nature and climate action to playfully explore how this utopia was made. Collaboratively brainstorming big ideas we got hands on to imagine what we'd like the future of your neighbourhood to look like."
Hotwells Wetlands image created by Emma Geen for Utopian Futures workshop
In December Anna worked with Hotwells Primary and Brandon Hill Flats Community members to explore ideas with some of youngest and most vulnerable residents.
Our 4th large event was on January 9th at Holy Trinity Hotwells as part of their Thursday Afternoon Talks programme. This presentation explained what people in the community have shared with us and how our ideas can work for people of all ages, abilities and income levels. You can see the presentation here.
We would really like to thank all the people and organisations mentioned on this page.
FAQs
How can I get involved?
The plan will be launched in June and will be widely shared throughout the community. You can see the draft version here and priorities and actions here. You will see that there are many actions listed under the themes that we can do as individuals or together as community and other actions that we need to untie with neighbourhoods across the city or work with Bristol City Council and others to achieve. Moving forwards, H&CCA are planning to organise monthly meet ups for anyone interested in being involved. Sign up for our newsletter to receive updates. Please do get in touch directly with us by email if you prefer.
What is a Community Climate Action Plan?
A key element of the Community Climate Action Project is the coproduction of community climate action plans which respond to both social and climate priorities. The plans are developed through community engagement with diverse communities across the city.
Bristol’s community climate action plans were developed in neighbourhoods experiencing inequality and disadvantage, along with the communities of Disabled people and refugees in the city. Leading climate action at a community level provides opportunities to improve the lives of local people and ensure the needs of Bristol’s diverse communities are better represented as the city responds to the climate and nature crises.
Many other groups across the city have been through this programme you can see their plans here. Cohort 3 is comprised of H&CCA,Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Shirehampton Community Action Forum, Rising Arts Agency,Bristol Older People’s Forum and One Green Kitchen.
What is a Community Conversation?
The events have been described this way to signify that our events are open and accessible to all and that everyone can have a say and feel that their opinion and ideas matter. Also we believe that through conversation and connection we are sharing and finding common ground.
How did H&CCA work out the priorities for our community?
During our events and activities we collected and collated your priorities and in early 2025 we shared those and asked people to respond. We had over 400 comments to analyse. The most commonly arising ideas and concerns formed the priorities. If people shared ideas for actions those ideas have been incorporated in the 'actions' along with input from experts that responded to our priorities at a round table event in March 2025.
What happens after the plan is written?
Inviting all the people who engaged in the project and the wider community, we will decide what achievable, affordable actions we can take in the short term. Working with the Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership we will seek support for longer term aspirations- these might be a campaign for more green spaces, supporting residents and tenants to make existing homes warmer in winter and cooler in summer, growing food for community use, encouraging species through better habitats cleaner water, ensuring we all understand our flood risk and know what to do in if flooding occurs. It could be working together to have more warm and cool spaces for all or doing more community gardening. It could be challenging the authorities on their development plans for more affordable, sustainable homes.
How did we engage with as many different people as possible in an inclusive way?
We have a really diverse neighbourhood and we reached out to those in our community who might not normally get involved in this kind of project. All our events and activities were be free, family friendly with refreshments provided. The communities who are most at risk from the effects of climate change are already experiencing inequalities. It is vital that the voices of all the diverse communities who will be affected shape the changes we make to reduce our carbon footprint. We need to remove barriers so everyone has benefits from green initiatives like reducing energy bills through renewables, accessing green spaces, food and ‘thing’ sharing initiatives and improving how we get around.
Please get in touch if you would like to find out more. You can sign up for the Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership’s mailing list here. The Community Climate Action Project is coordinated by Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership and kindly supported by the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund.