Plans to create climate action hub in Dumfries and Galloway handed £140,000

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Plans to create Dumfries and Galloway’s first climate action hub have been awarded £140,000. The Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere (GSAB) team has been chosen to lead the project, which is set to create new jobs in the region.

The hub will operate across the whole of Dumfries and Galloway and help communities to tackle climate change. The biosphere was chosen by Scottish Communities Climate Action Network and the Council, with the Scottish Government awarding the project £140,000 initially until March, with in-principal support for it to be extended for at least a further 12 months.

Biosphere director, Ed Forrest, said: “We’re very excited for this opportunity in which the knowledge and skills our organisation has developed over more than a decade of work will be put to such important use. “The fact that GSAB has been invited to step beyond its geographical boundary and lead the new climate hub reflects the Scottish Government and local authority’s confidence in our experience and expertise, and their faith in the UNESCO biosphere model to deliver tangible outcomes for the people of Dumfries and Galloway.” This will be just the third climate action hub in Scotland and look at a number of issues specific to Dumfries and Galloway communities, including climate impacts on food production, energy provision, transport and the cost of living, as well as local responses to extreme weather such as fire and flood.

Recruitment for new climate officers to deliver the programme will begin within weeks. Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition, Mairi McAllan said: “Climate action hubs will put communities at the heart of net zero and I’m very pleased to see the Dumfries and Galloway Climate