Two projects in the Borders have been given more than £60,000 under the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund (CCF), writes Mark Entwistle.
The cash is part of £6.9million in total being given to 43 groups across the country to support climate reductions in Scotland.
The CCF helps communities reduce their carbon footprints and contribute to Scotland reaching its ambitious target of reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
The current round of applications, assessed by an independent grants panel, also introduces the first successful intake of applications for the Junior Climate Challenge Fund, which aims to allocate funds to projects that are run by young people.
The successful applications from the Borders are Denholm Public Hall , which is receiving £57,484 for an energy efficient project and ‘A Greener Melrose’, which gets £3,000 to plant and maintain Drygrange Community Orchard.
Environment and climate change Minister Stewart Stevenson said Scotland’s ambitious and world-leading climate change targets can only succeed with the active involvement and participation of such community groups as those in the Borders.
He commented:“The initiatives we back under the Climate Challenge Fund are a great way of supporting behaviour change that helps drives down carbon emissions, said Mr Stevenson.
“We are tackling climate change from the grass roots up, and this latest funding round will support 43 projects with a total of £6.9million support, demonstrating that communities in Scotland are serious about addressing their carbon footprint.
“The Scottish Government is already receiving applications for the next round and I look forward to hearing about the many exciting new projects from all corners of the country.”
Since its launch in 2008, the Scottish Government has made £37.7million available to community groups through the CCF.
This latest announcement follows the confirmation of a further £30.9million made available by the CCF for 2012-15 and will see more than 500 awards made across 365 communities.