The Benefits of Community-led Climate Action: How can the total benefits of community-led climate action be understood and measured?

Introduction

This report shows the wide-ranging benefits of climate action in people’s every-day lives, helping to motivate support for and participation in local climate action projects.

It outlines the potential benefits from climate action activities, and a framework for measuring those benefits.

The report is for Climate Action Fund (CAF) grant holders and other stakeholders with an interest in community-led climate action. It can be used in decisions about project design, project monitoring or evaluation, or in communicating potential benefits to stakeholders.

Findings

The research showed that community-led climate action can be grouped into 6 activity types:

• nature (for example tree planting, habitat restoration)

• water, waste and consumption (for example, recycling, water efficiency)

• energy (for example, community renewable energy, energy efficiency initiatives)

• transport (for example, active travel, car sharing initiatives)

• public engagement (for example, climate change advocacy, education)

• food (for example, allotments, community orchards)

The review of research found that the benefits of these activities usually sit within 4 categories:

• environmental: the quality and conservation of nature

• economic: the distribution of resources and wealth in a community

• socio-cultural or community: people’s social wellbeing

• health: people’s physical and mental wellbeing

The report includes a framework for mapping climate action activities to their potential benefits in a community context, and example indicators for measuring them.

It also highlights how systems maps can show the cause-and-effect relationships between climate action and specific benefits.

The research and guidance is summarised in a resource for grant holders available on the Fund’s Evidence Library.