Making a difference

Climate Action Stories

Carbon Copy is now one of the largest searchable collections of climate action success stories in the UK, a vital free resource not just for local communities, councils and businesses, but also for researchers and central government departments compiling evidence of the breadth and impact of local climate initiatives.

There is enormous diversity across the organisations and groups who’ve shared their stories. The initiatives may be big or small in reach, but there’s always something that is (or could be) transformational.

Our publishing platform is proven and purpose-built for local. It’s free to use, open access and non-commercial. From the feedback received from project owners, the hub works really well for people looking to share their high-impact, low-carbon initiatives as well as for those who want to copy great ideas.

Around a thousand organisations have now published their climate action initiatives with Carbon Copy and we’ve made over 100,000 connections between different people.

In 2024, we continued to manage and invest in this national self-publishing platform; to make it more easily accessible and searchable, so these stories build a groundswell of collective local action through the inspiring example of others.

Placemaking

Carbon Copy’s interactive map of the UK, with 380 local area pages, provides easy access to key information about local ambition and action plans that address the climate emergency. By connecting people with the places they love, we encourage groups and organisations to work together in shaping the world around them. In 2024 we went further, by:

co-creating the latest local climate warming stripes for every UK county, producing a visual pattern of climate change in each local area;

collaborating with mySociety to automate the publication of all the latest local climate action plans and plans for nature that are in the public domain; and

working with Climate Emergency UK to connect the plans we publish to their evaluations, so it’s easier to check how local councils are performing in tackling the climate and nature crises.

To date, we’ve had around 50,000 visitors and 2,500 direct actions from people visiting this Carbon Copy placemaking resource.

Carbon Copy Podcast

From its early days as an exciting collaboration with Planet Pod, the Carbon Copy Podcast has grown in audience and established itself as a voice of big-thinking local action for climate and nature in the UK. Through powerful stories from the people behind the projects, the pod inspires, moves and motivates listeners to take action in their own local communities.

There is a real power in words and expanding from written to spoken word through podcasting reflects the challenge (and opportunity) to connect with people who are busy with daily life. Delivering content through audio means we can reach those who are on the go and the longer form (vs social media) enables us to deliver more high-quality, detailed and useful information.

This year (2024) was particularly important for the Carbon Copy Podcast, as we provided a contrasting narrative to the faltering progress of national climate policy. We showed, through real-life examples, that the answers lie in the communities where we live. These stories make bigger, positive changes feel within reach, encouraging our listeners to take the next step towards collective action.

Our monthly average of 400 podcast downloads took off in 2024. According to the latest figures, we are now in the top 25% of all podcasts worldwide, based on the number of downloads achieved within the first week of releasing new episodes.

Campaigns

Carbon Copy launched a full calendar of campaigns in 2024, building on the successes and partnerships from previous years and promoted across CC media and social channels, in order to connect with a wider audience on climate and nature through different topics and themes that matter most to them.

Jan: CC green jobs campaign, highlighting the increase in green jobs available and the benefits for both jobseekers and career changers. Feb: joined The Climate Coalition ‘Show the Love’ campaign for people to share their heartfelt climate action stories. Spring: CC ‘Leap into…’ campaign with publication of all the latest local area Climate Action Plans and climate warming stripes. May: showcased organisations helping to alleviate stress through green social prescribing, as part of Mental Health Awareness. July: supported Plastic Free July. Sep-Oct: CC ‘All Nature’ campaign in response to the huge appetite to hear about and potentially get involved in nature-related projects. Nov-Dec: joined the Warm This Winter coalition in its efforts to ensure the most vulnerable have access to heating and green energy.

Together, these campaigns supported the continuing growth of our national collection of climate action stories, nearly 4,000 podcast downloads and over 200,000 social video views.

Running Out Of Time

Over the last three years, Carbon Copy has been raising awareness and engaging different people in local climate action through culture – with a particular focus on sport and on mass participation events – and has enjoyed an incredible and high-impact partnership with The World Relay.

Approached by The World Relay in January 2022, Carbon Copy teamed up to organise the longest ever non-stop relay. Over 7700km from Glasgow (COP26 host city) to Sharm El-Sheikh (COP27 host city), in the name of climate action. No one had done anything this big before – that’s why it’s now a world record. We called it ‘Running Out of Time’.

The event linked amazing projects along the route and generated huge media attention for their local climate and nature work. We followed up in subsequent years with a GB mass event from Ben Nevis to Big Ben (‘Ben to Ben’), breaking through to new audiences and shortlisted for Campaign of the Year at the Sustainable Sports Awards.

In 2024, over 20,000 relay participants ran, walked, wheeled, swam, paddled and cycled different parts of the 2400km journey from Ben to Ben. Over 80% claimed that Running Out of Time wanted to make them do more to address the climate crisis, and two-fifths pledged to take a local community action for climate and nature.