Inaugural meeting of Climate Action Fund Advisory Panel

Following the recent launch of the £100m Climate Action Fund, The National Lottery Community Fund has brought together an advisory panel to support and challenge the Fund as it develops the Climate Action Fund.

The meeting takes place as people across the world are joining up through initiatives such as the Global Climate Strikes, World Environmental Health Day on 26 September and as the UK marks Recycling Week (23-28 September).

The Climate Action Fund has a bold ambition to build a network of people and communities to drive change that will ultimately reduce carbon emissions within and beyond these communities. The fund will support people and communities to act, come together so that local action is supported by, and in turn re-enforces, wider change.

The advisory panel is drawn from a wide constituency including young climate activists, academics, funders, community and environmental groups. They will support the National Lottery Community Fund by sharing their experience and expertise, and explore ways to link up and build on what’s already happening.

Dawn Austwick, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “This is another step forward in our climate action journey at the National Lottery Community Fund. We are delighted to be able to call on talented committed individuals to help us as we build our £100m Climate Action Fund to help communities take action to address the climate emergency and to build community momentum across the UK. Thanks to National Lottery Players we hope to make a sustained contribution to addressing the threat of climate change to communities.”

Members of the advisory panel, who had their first meeting last week, are:

Tony Burton, Chair of Climate Action Fund Advisory Panel and Vice Chair of The National Lottery Community Fund
Maria Adebowale-Schwarte, Executive Director at Foundation for Future London
Xavier Brice, CEO of Sustrans
Sepi Golzari-Munro, Deputy Director at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit
Ummi Hoque, student climate activist
Noga Levy-Rapoport, student climate activist
Caroline Mason, CEO of Esmee Fairbairn
Dr Afsheen Rashid MBE, Chief Operations Officer at Repowering London
Trewin Restorick, CEO of Hubub
Derek Robertson, Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful
Beccy Speight, CEO of the RSPB
Professor Rebecca Willis, research focus of environment, climate and energy policy

Tony Burton, Chair of the Climate Action Fund Advisory Panel, said: “The Climate Action Fund provides the opportunity for communities across the UK to make a difference and build a network to tackle the climate crisis. We are delighted to have such a talented and diverse group of advisors to ensure we make a lasting impact where it matters most.”

The National Lottery Community Fund, the UK’s largest funder of community activity, is currently gathering information about what local community-led climate action projects are already happening or being developed across the UK, as part of the Climate Action Fund. Applications for the fund will open in Autumn 2019.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk/climate-action-fund

Date published: 23 September, 2019
Region: UK-wide

Notes to Editors

Full list of Climate Action Fund Advisory Panel members:

Name	Biography
Tony Burton Chair	Tony works free range on community, design and environmental projects, including providing support for community groups and as volunteer convener of Neighbourhood Planners London. Tony is Vice Chair of both The National Lottery Community Fund and HS2’s Independent Design Panel and Chair of CPRE London. He is a trustee of mySociety and TCV and a Director of London’s environmental record centre, Greenspace Information for Greater London. He advises the National Infrastructure Commission on design and is an experienced member of many design panels. He advises Tarmac on sustainability. Tony founded Civic Voice in 2010 and has been an Executive Board member of the National Trust, CPRE and the Design Council. He is secretary of his local civic society and chairs Wandle Valley Forum, a network of over 130 community groups and voluntary organisations in south west London.
Maria Adebowale-Schwarte	Maria was recently appointed Executive Director at Foundation for Future London. Maria is a city and an urban place strategist, focusing on collaborative design, policy and funding models that are inclusive, equitable, and underpin good growth. She works with clients and partners from around the world and across sectors and communities. Her career started in planning, environment and human rights law. She has developed a portfolio of work that underpins ethically driven, co-created and economically viable places, spaces and cities using a mix of frameworks, from social value to heritage and culture. She's the founder of Living Space Project, the social enterprise and urban placemaking consultancy, and an associate of Futurecity and Projects for Public Space. Maria sits on a number of boards, and advisory groups including the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Environment Agency, the London Sustainable Development Commission, the Place Making Leadership Council, and the Raynsford Planning Task Force Review. She regularly writes articles and blogs and has written for, among others, The Guardian, New Start, Prospect Magazine, the United Nations and Policy Press. She has also written a book, The Place Making Factor, which blends fact and narratives on place and grant making. Maria is a regular speaker on urban placemaking and cities. She's been invited to talk at TedExWomen London, Placemaking Week, the WOW Festival and the World Bank. She’s also received numerous distinctions, including a Mayor’s London Leaders Award and a Clore Social Fellowship.
Xavier Brice	Xavier has long believed that transport is one of the biggest factors shaping how we live, and how we relate to one another and our environment. A radical transformation is needed as our current choices are too often divisive, unfair and are one of the largest contributors to climate change. He is thrilled to be leading the UK’s sustainable transport charity Sustrans. For over 40 years Sustrans has worked with communities and partners to provide alternatives to the corrosive impact of car dependency. The charity’s vision is a society where the way that we travel creates healthier places and happier lives for everyone. Xavier enjoys changing things. He joined Sustrans in June 2016 from Transport for London where he held a variety of roles, including leading the modernisation of London Underground’s stations and developing a new cycling strategy for the capital. Before this Xavier advised international businesses and organisations on their strategies. He lives in Surrey with his wife and two daughters.
Sepi Golzari-Munro	Sepi is Deputy Director (Strategy) at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. She brings over a decade of experience engaging closely with political and policy processes in the UK and internationally, and across Government, private and civil society sectors. Prior to joining ECIU, she led the UK programme at a climate change think tank; worked as an adviser to organisations as diverse as investment management firms and charities; and spent 7 years as a Whitehall official, serving under Conservative, Lib Dem and Labour ministers and across a variety of departments, including the Department of Energy and Climate Change. She also spent 2 years as Visiting Academic at King’s College London, Faculty of Law and has worked as Legal Researcher to former Court of Appeal judge, Sir Stephen Sedley. Sepi holds an LLM from McGill University and an LLB from King’s College London. She is a Board Member of UK100 and sits as a Co-Optee on the JRCT Sustainable Futures Committee.
Ummi Hoque	Ummi has been involved in action on climate change for some time. She officially began her environmental activism through the My World My Home programme that is offered at her college. Prior to that, she became interested in climate justice after watching a YouTube video exposing the effects of climate change in Greenland. After finishing the programme, she was encouraged to continue to fight for our planet, and she is now a youth forum member for Our Bright Future. As a youth forum representative, she has been invited to Parliament on multiple occasions to talk to MPs about the environmental action being taken in schools and what needs to be done to improve the climate crisis.
Noga Levy-Rapoport	Noga Levy-Rapoport, 17, is a youth climate activist who led the London climate strike march on 15 February 2019 and has since become heavily involved with the U.K. Student Climate Network. Her work primarily involves the Green New Deal campaign and school outreach, having travelled to Berlin as a national representative. Her work with the press includes the Guardian and BBC Radio 4. She confronted corporate leaders directly at International Petroleum Week in February, and has spoken at several rallies and events to demand urgent climate action. Noga is one of the founders of T.E.A., an amateur youth-led theatre group based in West London, dedicated to improving teenagers’ wellbeing through free performing arts training. Currently an A level student at Arts Educational School in Chiswick, Noga also trains as a classical singer.
Caroline Mason	Caroline is Chief Executive of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Before joining Esmée, Caroline was Chief Operating Officer at Big Society Capital and preceding that, Charity Bank. Caroline was also the co-founder of Investing for Good, a social investment advisory firm and one of the first Community Interest Companies. Before joining the social sector, Caroline had an eighteen-year track record of creative and innovative product development in the financial services sector. With Reuters, she managed the global development of real-time news and television services and then pioneered the introduction of web technology products. She also had her own consulting company, working with several financial institutions to develop new business and products including an electronic brokering service and a global wealth management business for a private bank. Caroline is a Board Member of the Environment Agency.
Dr Afsheen Rashid MBE	Afsheen is Repowering’s Co-founder Director and Chief Executive Officer. Afsheen sits as Chair of the Brixton Energy Solar Co-operatives the UK’s first inner-city community-owned solar power stations; is Chair of Community Energy England and remains influential in both local and national community energy decision making. Afsheen is a Board member of Friends of the Earth and is an advisor to several organisations. Prior to Repowering’s foundation, Afsheen pioneered Lambeth Council’s Community Energy Programme and she was also previously a Senior Policy Advisor at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Afsheen was instrumental in setting up the Muslim Women’s Collective in Tower Hamlets that seeks to empower women to play an active role in improving the environment. Afsheen has a MA in Geography and MEnv in Environment, Science and Society and an Honorary Doctorate. Afsheen was awarded an MBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honours List for her work in renewable energy in deprived London communities.
Trewin Restorick	Trewin Restorick is Founder and CEO of the award-winning charity Hubbub UK www.hubbub.org.uk which transforms the way environmental messages are communicated by bringing people and organisations together as a force for good. Previously Trewin created Global Action Plan the UK’s leading environmental behaviour change charity. Trewin is a frequent media commentator on environmental issues and was trained by Al Gore as one of his climate change ambassadors. He has Chaired Student Hubs http://www.studenthubs.org/ and been a trustee for the New Economics Foundation. Before starting Global Action Plan, Trewin was Director of Fundraising at Friends of the Earth where he created PaperRound London’s leading community recycling business. Prior to Friends of the Earth, Trewin worked at Plymouth City Council and produced a youth TV programme for the BBC called Something Else.
Derek Robertson	Derek is Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB), one of the UK’s leading environmental charities, which has a significant programme of activities, and portfolio of services, that impact across the environmental spectrum. Amongst many responsibilities, Derek is the accountable officer for the Scottish Government’s £120m flagship programme for communities tackling climate change, known as the Climate Challenge Fund (CCF). The CCF, which KSB has administered, managed and developed since 2009, has supported in excess 700 community groups take action on climate change. Derek’s team of specialised staff supervise the distribution of £10m of community grants annually. In addition, Derek has responsibility for the environmental education programme Eco Schools (in Scotland) and the Climate Ready Classrooms initiative. Derek has led KSB to become Scotland’s first Carbon Literate Training organisation; has overseen the alignment of KSB’s strategic aims with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and has led the charity to ISO14001 accreditation. From 2011 – 2016, Derek was a member of Scotland’s 2020 Climate Change Group. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Scotland’s Towns Partnership, Non-Executive Director of the European Litter Prevention Association; a member of the Institute of Directors, a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; and is a Chartered Waste Manager.
Beccy Speight	Beccy was recently appointed CEO of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Previously, she was CEO of the Woodland Trust. Beccy joined the Woodland Trust in 2014 after working for the National Trust for 14 years, initially as general manager of the Stourhead Estate, then as director for its East Midlands and Midlands regions from 2005. Previously, Beccy was responsible for leading and championing the National Trust’s work on its sustainable food agenda and she chaired the Food for Life Catering Mark Standards Committee for the Soil Association. She also contributed to national steering groups on contemporary art in the National Trust, its work in the outdoors and engaging urban communities. Prior to joining the National Trust, Beccy worked in local government in Scotland and was a company director at management consultancy Smythe Dorward Lambert.
Rebecca Willis	Dr Rebecca Willis is a researcher with twenty years’ experience in environment and sustainability policy and practice, at international, national and local level. She is a Professor in Practice at Lancaster Environment Centre, and a research fellow for the IGov project at the University of Exeter, investigating energy governance. In 2009 Rebecca founded Green Alliance’s Climate Leadership Programme, an initiative to support Members of the UK Parliament. With Lancaster University, she is conducting research into political responses to climate change. She advises the Lake District National Park, where she helped to establish the UK’s first local carbon budget; and has a particular interest in local and distributed energy solutions. Rebecca is a Fellow of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) and a Trustee of the New Economics Foundation. From 2015-2019 she was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of UKRI’s Energy Programme, and from 2011-15 she was a Council Member of the Natural Environment Research Council. Previously she was Vice-Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, advising the Prime Minister and First Ministers of the devolved administrations. She is an Associate of the think tank Green Alliance and from 2001-4 was Green Alliance’s Director.

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We are the largest funder of community activity in the UK – we’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Since June 2004, we have made over 200,000 grants and awarded over £9 billion to projects that have benefited millions of people.

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Climate Action Fund - round 1

The Climate Action Fund is a ten-year £100 million fund supporting communities across the UK to take action on climate change.