As part of the drive to ensure that there is a just transition to net zero, the Scottish Government earlier this year announced a £500 million over 10 years Just Transition Fund covering Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, and Moray. £20 million is being given out to capital products in this region this year. £1 million of which is going straight to communities through a capital participatory budgeting fund, which ACVO, AVA, TSI Moray, NESCAN Hub, and Money 4 Moray are running.

This green participatory budgeting fund means that communities will have the opportunity to put forward carbon-reducing local projects and everyone in the North East gets to vote for the green community projects that they want to see financed.

It is a fantastic opportunity for communities to come together and think up some great projects that can help tackle climate change and enhance the community, and get those funded. Participatory Budgeting is not new to this region but this is the first time this level of money has been put into a region-wide fund for green participatory budgeting. With £333,333 being allocated in each local authority area, it will be exciting to see what communities decide the money will be spent on.

The Just Transition Participatory Budgeting Fund is a capital fund: it helps buy tangible things like tools, bikes, equipment, trees, and plants, really any item that could be used in a community project to reduce carbon emissions and increase sustainability. The fund is open to community groups, charities, and other non-profit organisations, with an upper funding limit of £50,000 per application. The Fund opens on Friday 30th September, with a range of information and drop-in events being organised to help communities develop their bids for the Fund. If you would like to know more, just visit www.nescan.org/pb for more information. You can also pop along to our online Just Transition Participatory Budgeting Fund Info Event on Thursday 6th October 7-830pm to find out all about the Fund: just register HERE .

The NESCAN Hub Team will host a community assembly for Tillydrone, Seaton, Linksfield and Woodside in Aberdeen City in January 2023.

Each assembly workshop will be attended by a diverse range of community members along with experts on a range of sustainability, climate change, and biodiversity themes. Throughout the sessions, participants will co-create:

• Actions/projects that communities can take forward themselves without any help at all.  
• Actions/ projects that the community can do with help from elsewhere such as, funding and advice from NESCAN Hub, the local authorities, and other partners.  
• Actions/ projects that the community can do in partnership with the local authority, school, business, or other statutory bodies   
  
  

The Assembly participants will also have the opportunity to identify actions that require systemic change at a regional or national level, and to explore ways of raising these with people in power such as through a formal document, letters to MPs, meeting with MSPs or councillors etc.

 Participants will receive ongoing support after the event from NESCAN Hub to take these actions and projects forward, including the wider community and relevant partners in the discussions and deliberations, to gain widespread community feedback and final approval.

There will be a celebration event, as part of Climate Week North East, attended by key    council officials and councillors, among others, where you will present your community’s action plan.

                           If you would like further information, please visit our page https://www.nescan.org/community-assembly or contact Chris Bodington at  christine@nescan.org or call 01224081328

The screening of our film 'North East Scotland Communities: Our Green Journey” has been a success. We had rave reviews and a great turnout in our screenings at Victoria Hall, Ellon, and The Barn, Banchory (with some lovely home-baked goods at Victoria Hall!).
We would like to say a massive THANK YOU to House Media Unit (SHMU) and to all our film stars for their amazing job!

Our film is a collection of stories and projects narrated by individuals from across our region, illustrating our shared vision for our green journey ahead. If you missed the first two screenings, there is still an opportunity to see it! Our final film screening will be in The Aberdeen Arts Centre, Aberdeen at 2.00 pm on Sunday 13th November

On this date, the film’s stars will be attending to take questions from the audience and share their knowledge, experience, and lessons learned for anyone trying to start up their own climate change community group or project. There will also be stalls hosted by community groups with information and activities before and after the film.
Doors will open at 2PM for networking, stalls, and refreshments and there will be 30 minutes after the film for questions and further networking.

If you would like to host a stall at this event, please contact tara@nescan.org by Friday 28th October and for further information on the film please see our website.

We look forward to seeing you all there and sharing the brilliant community work taking place across the region.

Date: 12th November
Location: Belmont Filmhouse Aberdeen
Register: Tickets are free and will be available to book directly from eventbrite from Monday 26th October 2022.

Plans are well underway for next year’s Climate Week North East. Please have a look at previous year’s brochures here: https://climateweeknortheast.org. We welcome any events that have as their focus how we can reduce carbon emissions, live sustainably and increase biodiversity.  If you have an event you would like to put on during CWNE, even if it’s simply to showcase what you currently are doing, please let me know christine@nescan.org