1000 Climate Action Stories

We’re working on an ambitious drive to start 2022 with over 1,000 inspiring stories about collective climate action hosted on Carbon Copy. Since we launched in May 2020, our primary aim has been to speed up progress to carbon zero by sharing and celebrating examples of local leadership and of organisations working together, from across the UK. We’ve already established ourselves as a valuable hub for communities, councils and companies to promote their work and share real world insights, and now, with this push, we are hoping to bring together many more ways for people to get involved and tackle the climate and biodiversity crises.

To achieve this target of over 1,000 stories, we have collaborated with all five of the regional Energy Hubs in England as well as with different associations and councils across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The aim of this collaboration is for the published stories to become a legacy of the COP26 Domestic Campaign, collecting the stories captured through the Zero Carbon Tour of the UK and COP26 Regional Roadshows. This unique resource will continue to inspire and accelerate more collective action locally.

“There is real ambition locally in moving towards net-zero,” said Ric Casale, co-founder of Carbon Copy. “Over half of all Local Authorities in the UK have targets of becoming net-zero by 2030. Collaboration between different organisations and across sectors is vital; this national hub of carbon stories demonstrates the power and effectiveness of joined up thinking and shared leadership to make change happen faster than most people thought possible. The hub is freely available and accessible to everyone, enabling as many people as possible to discover new, innovative projects and to copy what’s working.”

In addition to hundreds of people who published their stories on the hub, many others told their stories face-to-face on camera as part of the Zero Carbon Tour, developed by BEIS in partnership with the Energy Hubs working with Planet Mark, Local Authorities and other local partners. During the three-month tour, Planet Mark visited 45 locations across the UK by electric bus and engaged with 7,500 people, including filming interviews with people working on inspiring low-carbon initiatives. Over 200 of these video carbon stories can now be viewed online, on Carbon Copy.

Maxine Narburgh, Regional Hub Manager at the Greater South East Energy Hub said: “The transition to net zero is already happening in local areas across the UK. We wanted a way to highlight this shift and demonstrate the valuable contribution and leadership of people working together in local government, businesses, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. With this huge repository of carbon stories, we hope that regardless of where you are in the country, or what your professional or personal situation is, there will be a project that you can take inspiration from or get involved with.”You can discover more innovative carbon stories from all over the UK, and in your local area, by visiting our initiatives page.

Photo by Rain Bennett on Unsplash