Final Round for Cut your Carbon
18 February 2009
There will be no EEDA funding for further rounds of the competition once the current funding round has ended.
During these tough economic times the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) has had to re-prioritise budgets to provide additional help for businesses and a budget reduction has been agreed across a range of EEDA programmes, including Cut your Carbon.
Between September and December last year central government informed all Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) of proposals to reduce their budgets in order to fund other governmental priorities. While the reduction has been forcibly challenged by RDA Chairs and Chief Executives, the government has decided to implement the proposed reductions.
Unfortunately, the result of this is that there will be no EEDA funding for further rounds of the competition for community carbon-saving projects in Cut your Carbon once the current funding round has ended. All funding agreed for the first round of the competition is secure and will not be affected, and support will continue to be available to communities taking part.
The second round, which closed on 30 January 2009, is going ahead and the entries are currently being reviewed. EEDA funding is available for the best entries and one-to-one support will continue to be available for the successful communities as they work up a detailed project plan to receive funding.
Since its launch in March 2008, Cut your Carbon has had a significant impact on community carbon-cutting projects in the East of England. Several community projects from round one are now coming to fruition and there are a number of interesting entries in round two. As well as making a major difference in their own communities, these projects, will be available as case studies providing inspiration and guidance for other communities wishing to work together to cut their carbon.
More than 100 communities and over 1,500 individuals have registered on the website since launch in March 2008 and are keeping a record of the carbon-saving actions they are taking based on the advice provided by the system.
Communities and individuals using the online Cut your Carbon resource can be assured that this system will continue to be available over the coming years. We are in discussion to make the system a free, national resource, and we are also exploring more broadly what future possible activity could be delivered through the Cut your Carbon brand.
EEDA remains committed to the ambitious target for CO2 reduction as outlined in the Regional Economic Strategy and supports programmes and activity to support low carbon economic growth and to a strong, sustainable economy in the East of England in which businesses, communities and the public sector all have important roles to play.
EEDA still recognises the power of communities to get people involved in saving energy and cutting carbon emissions. We are dedicated to supporting the communities involved in the campaign and will be guiding them to suitable sources of advice and grant funding over the coming months.
We appreciate that you may have been working toward future funding rounds and that you may have questions about existing or planned entries into the funding competition, the community carbon footprinting system, or alternative sources of funding. Please do contact your community support officer who can help you with these areas. Contact details for your community support officer can be found here.
We wish you the best of luck in your future community carbon-cutting activities.
The Cut your Carbon team