POLICY BRIEF Learning to be low-carbon: lessons from two community projects Svenja Meyerricks, Jan Bebbington, Rehema White University of St Andrews Summary The potential of community organisations to effect change in their localities has been recognised in Scotland through the availability of public funding for projects involving carbon reductions. This study included an overview of the Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) and a deeper 11 months participative engagement with case study projects. Summary results of the main two case studies reported in this policy brief include 1) differentiation between 'community', 'community organisation' and the 'community project' funded by the CCF; 2) potential for community initiatives to focus on internal group development or outreach, with both foci being beneficial; 3) diversity in community organisations' values and project aims that appears to be linked to different priorities resulting from inequalities, different notions of 'community' and a lack of political avenues for long-term community engagement. Community projects funded by the CCF have achieved pro-environmental and social benefits beyond carbon reductions, at local and larger scales. CCF-funded community projects act as valuable liminal spaces (spatial and temporal) in which groups and individuals can explore more sustainable living options. However, the magnitude of CCF-funded project impacts was constrained by insufficient societal and infrastructural changes. A political focus on environmental justice, intensified action to tackle climate change at all levels and involving community organisations more in democratic processes and in the design of research concerning them were recommended. Introduction and background Climate change poses a real threat to people and planet (IPCC 2013). International agreements have encouraged national efforts to reduce carbon emissions and Scotland has developed the most ambitious policy framework yet, with a statutory target to reduce carbon emissions by 80% (Scottish Government 2009). These targets require coordinated government or sector based actions, changes in behaviour of individuals (supported by affordable low-carbon infrastructures), and finally collective, creative and constructive community responses at a local and regional level. The Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) is an initiative by the Scottish Government, allocating funding to community groups in competitive funding rounds for projects that reduce carbon emissions while being community-led, in the sense that they “draw their membership from, and focus their activities on, a clearly defined geographical area [or] communities of interest where they can be defined in terms of geography” (Keep Scotland Beautiful 2016). The CCF has distributed over £61 million of funding to 696 projects in 512 communities across Scotland to date, since its launch in 2008 (Scottish Government 2016). While the reduction of carbon emissions was found to occur within the projects, a qualitative evaluation of the CCF has demonstrated that "much of the value of community projects lies in their ability to enthuse people about sustainable lifestyles more widely, 1