insights
Aligning Climate Action, Just Transition, and Community Wealth Building (CWB)

Climate action, just transition, and community wealth building are often discussed in separate conversations.

But in practice, they are three essential, interconnected strands of Scotland’s equitable path to net zero.

For local authorities, weaving these strands together is the key to ensuring the transition to a sustainable economy fosters resilience, reduces inequalities, and empowers every community.

The risks of siloed action and the opportunity of integration are stark:

  • National green energy projects hold immense potential for job creation, but without deliberate integration, much of this economic value could leak overseas instead of revitalising Scotland's local economies.
  • The decline of high-carbon industries threatens local economies, making proactive retraining and economic diversification plans not just ideal, but essential.
  • Without a deliberate focus on equity, the net-zero transition could exacerbate existing deprivation. A coordinated strategy ensures that climate action actively reduces inequality and builds community resilience.

The message is clear: climate action that isn't built on fairness can exacerbate the problems it aims to solve.

But when aligned purposefully with just transition and community wealth building, it becomes a powerful engine for local good.

This approach not only reduces emissions but also creates quality jobs, shortens supply chains, supports community ownership, and tackles poverty.

New resources to guide your journey

To support this critical work, we have developed two new briefings that move from theory to practice:

  • A briefing for Local Authority Officers  provides practical guidance on implementation. The briefing highlights the risks of uncoordinated efforts and outlines key considerations for embedding just transition and community wealth building into core climate initiatives.
  • A briefing for Elected Members offers practical steps to champion this alignment, strengthen local commitments, and scrutinise investments to ensure they deliver tangible benefits for their communities.

From national strategy to local implementation

This isn’t just a theoretical exercise. The growing momentum behind an integrated approach was clearly demonstrated at our Just Transition event on 28 August 2025, hosted in collaboration with SLAED and SSN.

With over 110 participants from local government, the event helped forge a shared understanding of how to bridge national strategy with local delivery.

The urgency of aligning action across sectors and scales was further reinforced at the recent CWB Practitioners Network Meeting, which also focused on Just Transition.

The message from attendees at both events was clear: there’s a strong demand for practical support - a need these briefings are designed to meet.

Our briefings provide actionable strategies, including how to:

  • Maximise local economic benefits through strategic procurement and repurposing public assets for renewable energy.
  • Empower community ownership by supporting community-led renewables and participatory budgeting.
  • Target green investments to address deprivation and promote spatial justice.
  • Build local green skills through reskilling programmes and apprenticeships tied to fair work standards.
  • Foster collaborative governance through cross-sector partnerships and co-design.

Download the briefings

The path to a stronger, fairer, and more resilient Scotland is built in our communities.

Local authorities are at the forefront of making this happen.

These are part of a wider series of briefings on Community Wealth Building and Climate Change, which you can find here.

For further support and information, please contact: