Low Carbon Communities Challenge

 Early Registration Required...28th October...

 

The Government has today launched the £10 million Low Carbon Communities Challenge - a two-year programme which will allow communities to build on existing low carbon schemes.
The Challenge will cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and offers the chance to be in the forefront of moving to a low carbon economy.  Twenty successful communities will each receive support of up to £500,000 to pay for measures selected by the local residents themselves.  These could range from a local biomass plant to electric car charge points.

In return for technical and financial assistance, people living and working in the area will work alongside government and contribute to finding low carbon solutions from which the whole country will benefit.  The twenty communities will act as national blueprints that will be used to inform government policy development and delivery, and pave the way for a national roll-out of proven measures.

For towns to be eligible they must demonstrate they are already making changes and are committed to developing both infrastructure and behaviour change that results in carbon reduction such as wind farms, electric car infrastructure or home energy refurbishments.  A specialist support squad made up of partners with funding and expertise from inside and outside government, including The Energy Saving Trust, The Carbon Trust, WRAP and the third sector, will work together with each community to offer help on anything from negotiating in planning debates to identifying personalised low carbon answers.

The Challenge is seeking a broad 40:60 split between ‘first mover’ communities – already recognised as exemplars for their carbon reduction plans – and ‘second movers’, with less experience but clear intentions and emerging plans of action for cutting carbon emissions and increasing sustainability.  Half of the total funding, £5 million, must be spent within this financial year, and the remaining £5 million within the next financial year.  Therefore, funding for this financial year will target approximately eight ‘first mover’ exemplars that are in a position to submit funding applications immediately.  This group will already have a track record in developing integrated plans.  This will give more time for the (approximately 12) ‘second mover’ communities to develop their plans for funding in the next financial year (2010/2011).  Since this group is likely to be larger, they are likely to get a slightly smaller share of the overall funding.
The deadlines for applications to the two phases are as follows:

• Phase 1 deadline: 27 November 2009.
• Phase 2 deadline: 30 December 2009.

All applicants are requested to register their interest by noon on 28 October 2009.
The Challenge is scheduled to start in February 2010 with a series of workshops.

See http://tinyurl.com/ydd9nfm