Climate change events and resources

July 2023

Highlands & Islands Climate Festival

The Highland & Islands Climate Festival is a celebration of localism and community engagement with a focus on climate action to be held from 1st – 30th September 2023.

Find details about the upcoming events and how you can submit your own below.

The Highlands and Islands Climate Hub has offered overarching support in creating and managing the website and social media channels. However, the beauty of the festival is that the decision-making powers lie with the communities who take part.

More information

Admin and funding

Festival working Group

-------------------------

June 2023

Ecologist / Schumacher Institute
'Small is the Future' conference

This conference was held in Bristol on 17 June 2023.  Here is the introduction from its promoters

We are experiencing crises in almost every aspect of our lives. The increase in food prices alongside bloated gas and energy bills; the seemingly permanent wars in Europe and around the world; the increasingly stark warnings from climate scientists. The crises are multifaceted but the cause of each is singular. The extractive, exploitative and growth-fuelled economies of the world are driving us ever closer to the cliff edge. 

SMALL IS THE FUTURE offers the community in Bristol and beyond an opportunity to come together to discuss the crises – and also the solutions. We are bringing together activists, authors and academics to share their lived and learned experiences of the current crisis and to develop our understanding of what change needs to happen so that we can secure a safe future for ourselves and for future generations.

This event has been organised by The Ecologist with The Schumacher Institute, and has been sponsored by Bristol Energy Cooperative. The event is being held to celebrate 50 years since both the publication of E.F. Schumacher’s bestselling Small is Beautiful and the foundation of The Ecologist.

Ian Roderick, Director, The Schumacher Institute
Brendan Montague, Editor, The Ecologist 

A recording of the event has been made available by the organisers.

Community Climate Action Toolkit

This comprehensive (and lengthy at over 200 pages) toolkit for community climate action has been developed by the Schumacher Institute.

A toolkit designed for community climate groups

Communities like yours across the world are increasingly aware of the need to take action on climate change but often feel overwhelmed by the scale and complexity of the issues raised, and don’t feel empowered to take action.

We have created a Community Climate Action Toolkit to help you.

The toolkit is a richly illustrated, easy to navigate PDF document, viewable on a computer or portable device.

This Community Climate Action Toolkit will help you

• with easy-to-use tools and resources, to develop your group
• understand your local situation, to move into meaningful action
• ensure a diversity of views and approaches is considered
• achieve action at different levels
• find creative ways forward unique to you, not a pre-defined route

Our approach is founded on systems thinking principles, but presented in practical ways. It is accessible to any community that is interested in taking action to address climate change.

The Toolkit was co-authored by Katie Dick and Richard Erskine, who are Fellows of The Schumacher Institute. It has been supported by The Schumacher Institute and the COMMEET fellowship and produced with the help of an international group of contributors and commenters.