Oxfordshire 2026 Climate Grants

4 hours ago
5 min read

Thanks to funds from Oxfordshire County Council (OCC), we are able to support community groups around the county to kickstart projects that address the impacts of extreme weather events, hot homes, and climate anxiety.

We want to support activities and events that empower local groups to create new connections and raise awareness in order to support new people, local businesses and organisations to take climate action; protect themselves from extreme temperatures in the summer, and address climate anxiety. Grants between £100-£1,000 are available for activities that are completed (or largely underway) before 1 April 2027. We will try to stretch funds to support as many groups as possible, so please try to be accurate in your budget estimates.

We have funding under three different pots: you may apply to all three, but due to anticipated high demand, it’s not guaranteed you would be awarded all three grants. Where all three of your activities are related, you may submit one comprehensive proposal drawing on all three funding pots (i.e. max award of £3,000).

Community Resilience
Hot Homes
Climate Anxiety

Community Resilience: Projects that address the impacts of extreme weather events

Since 2007, Oxfordshire has experienced 20 significant flood events, 12 named storms, 8 cold snaps, 4 major heatwaves and 3 periods of drought.

The Oxfordshire Community Resilience Small Grants programme supports community groups to organise local events and activities, awareness raising or planning costs associated with climate adaptation efforts and interventions. These should engage the local community and address potential future impacts of extreme weather events.

Last autumn, we hosted a related event with talks by the OCC climate action, resilience, flood, and nature recovery teams - a recording can be found here. You aren’t required to watch in order to apply for these grants, but you may find it useful.

Types of Grants

Proposed activities should reference previous impacts of climate change/extreme weather events that have negatively impacted the local community and/or reference the Current and future climate risk and vulnerability and health impacts assessments in Oxfordshire or Extreme Temperatures and Rainfall in Oxfordshire reports.

Activities we might fund include (not exhaustive):

Education and awareness raising within your community
Developing a community emergency plan with community input and distribution
Research or consultation that identifies perceived or real barriers in feeling prepared for an emergency
Printing of communication and marketing materials
Planting shade at a playground or sports field
Solar panels and batteries for community facility
Providing a cool space in a community area
Creating resilient habitat
Water harvesting and bowers
Green roofing
Sunshades on community places- schools, sports clubs, parish buildings, libraries (solar films, canopy, parasol)
Small scale community distributions
Growing projects
Watering and maintaining recently planted trees (not on private property)

Your Event or Activity

Must address climate adaptation (i.e. impacts from extreme weather events)
Credit that it is ‘Supported by Oxfordshire County Council’
Incorporate logo and strapline ‘Your Choices Matter’ of Climate Action Oxfordshire on publicity
Use #ClimateActionOxfordshire tag in any social activity
Share at least one photo of the event that can be used in future promotion of the event (with proper permissions already secured) by Oxfordshire County Council. OCC will provide appropriate credit.

Hot Homes: Activities that support residents to make homes more resilient to heat and/or provide long-term community-based solutions to extreme heat

Types of Grants

Proposed activities should reference the Beat the Heat and Keeping Cool in Heat Waves guidance.

Activities we might fund include (not exhaustive):

Education and awareness raising within your community
Research or consultation that identifies perceived or real barriers in feeling prepared for extreme hot weather
Printing of communication and marketing materials
Planting shade at a playground or sports field
Providing a cool space in a community area
Sunshades on community places- schools, sports clubs, parish buildings, libraries (solar films, canopy, parasol)
Draughtbusting programs reshaped to support cool homes
Bulk purchasing of items to help make homes cooler for distribution within the community (i.e. curtains)

Required Training and Evaluation

Successful applicants will be required to attend one in-person or online training delivered by OCC Public Health. In the case that the dates conflict, there will be an option to watch a recording of the online training. Grantees will also be required to participate in two hours of a feedback/reflection session on what worked well and what could be improved. In total, we anticipate four hours of time for this requirement. Groups will be supported with an additional £80 on top of their grant award in recognition of their time. More than one person may attend the training and/or participate in the feedback session.

Climate Anxiety: Projects have a psychological, mental or physical health benefit

Types of Grants

Proposed activities should reference the Climate change and mental health: thematic assessment report. You might also review the Climate Psychology Alliance Handbook or the OCC Public Health Director’s 2023/2024 report on Climate Change and Health. We want to support what you know works for your community or that addresses needs voiced from within your community that you haven't been able to resource yet.

Activities we might fund include (not exhaustive):

Encouraging and facilitating involvement in climate action (i.e. volunteering at a repair cafe or a community garden)
Nature connection
Social psychological support and skillbuilding for young people or other vulnerable groups
Walking or biking projects

For All Three Grant Programs –

What We Can Fund

Equipment
One-off events
Staff costs (if directly supporting your proposed activity/intervention)
Transport
Utilities
Volunteer expenses
Publicity e.g flyers, social media advertising

What We Cannot Fund

Flooding abatement projects (OCC recently funded nearly 40 community schemes and you can find the flood toolkit here for additional resources.)
New tree planting projects (You can find support for tree planting on the Climate Action Oxfordshire website and/or apply for an International Tree Foundation grant)
Political organisations or events
Profit-making or fundraising activities
Contingency costs, loans, endowments or interest
VAT you can reclaim
Overseas travel or projects that take place outside of the UK

Deadline

The deadline for grant applications is Friday, 3 July. We will aim to notify successful applicants by the end of the month and grants will be paid into your organisation's bank account as soon as possible following confirmation.

Who Can Apply

Voluntary and community organisations
Constituted group or club
Registered charity
Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
Not-for-profit company
Community interest company (CIC)
School (as long as your project benefits and involves the communities around the school & you have a safeguarding policy)
Community benefit society
Parish and town councils

Who We Cannot Accept Applications From

Individuals
Sole traders
Organisations based outside the UK
Companies that can pay profits to directors, shareholders or members (including Companies Limited by Shares)
Political organisations