Carbon-neutral islands project: progress report

6. Next Steps

6.1 2024/25 Funding Aims

Following the investment and activity set out above, we continue to work in partnership with the islands to support them in their net zero trajectories. This includes continued funding to support organisations including local anchor organisations, Community Energy Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Futures Trust.

The overarching objectives of the CNI fund for 2024/25 are to:

Objective 1: Continue to support the six islands to implement their Community Climate Change Action Plans (published in 2023/24) whilst supporting them to develop a pathway to enable them to reach net zero by 2040.

Objective 2: Gather, refine and share good practices from the CNI project to benefit other Scottish islands (those not already directly included).

Objective 3: Establish an overarching approach to the longer-term delivery and sustainability of the project.

6.2 Financing Strategies

The 2023 Progress Report highlighted that we would develop Investment Strategies in order to deliver on the Community Climate Change Action Plans. These will focus on developing different funding options in the future for the CNIs. We have partnered with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) on this workstream. The Scottish Government’s commitment to these financing strategies was also reaffirmed in the 2024/2025 Programme for Government.

HIE are using their local expertise and extensive experience with development projects to help us define an approach to financing projects with a view to securing types of funding in the medium/long term. They are working in collaboration with each island to ensure that they are front and centre in the project. We will also consider how the project will operate within the wider net zero landscape.

6.3 Continued Capital Investment

In addition to the £1 million capital funding invested in 2023/24, we will provide a further £1.3 million this financial year to drive forward net zero initiatives across the six islands.

This includes our £1 million Carbon Neutral Islands Capital Fund administrated by the Scottish Futures Trust. Applications have been welcomed from Local Authorities working in partnership with communities.

The process has been carefully designed to ensure that CNIs can access the funding to take forward larger, more impactful projects when the time is right for them.

We will work with the islands in further developing and refining the pipeline of net zero projects to support them taking forward their net zero ambitions.

In addition, each island has access to £50,000 to build on their activites to date and continue to implement their Community Climate Change Action Plans.

6.4 Knowledge Exchange

A key aim of the project has always been to ensure that all Scottish islands will benefit through the sharing of good practices stemming from implementation. In order to achieve this aim Community Energy Scotland are taking forward a range of activity:

• Showcasing their Community Climate Action Handbook based on the learnings and good practice stemming from the project to date.
• Establishing two Communities of Practice, made up of 15 new islands total, through which CES can support them to deliver:
  • carbon audits;
  • action plan development;
  • feasibility studies; and
  • training (in areas such as auditing, or where there are skills gaps preventing islands from taking forward carbon reduction activity).
  • These islands are Tiree, Mull, Bressay, Colonsay, Lewis, Uist, Luing, Shapinsay, North Ronaldsay, Papa Westray, Westray, Sanday, Stronsay and Eday.
• Enhancing project communications and engagement with communities across the Carbon Neutral Islands Project (working with Community Development Officers (CDOs)) and maximising digital resources.
• Continuing to work with the CDOs across the six CNI islands providing technical support and enhancing communications and engagement.