About
Hi, I’m Rachel Coxcoon, Founder and Director of ClimateGuide. I was previously Director of the Climate Emergency Support Programme at the Centre for Sustainable Energy, and in my 16 years at CSE, I developed a formidable reputation as a leader in local climate strategy and local authority and community responses to the climate crisis.
I was also a local authority elected member in my own right from 2019 to 2023, at Cotswold District Council. I led the council’s work tackling the climate crisis, as Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Forward Planning, before standing down in 2023 after moving away from the district.
Local government responses to the climate emergency will need to address a wide range of issues, from transforming energy generation, buildings retrofit, increasing public and active transport provision, driving a local economic transformation to sustainable models, and using placemaking powers to plan and deliver genuinely sustainable new places.
All of this needs to be done for the community, but more crucially, with the community. Local Government must play a leadership role, bringing residents and businesses on the journey, and stimulating lasting behaviour change.
It's a complex problem, with many strands to the solution. I set up ClimateGuide to help you navigate your way through it.
I bring a unique blend of skills and knowledge to local government climate support – political understanding, a broad range of technical and research understanding, advanced training, facilitation and stakeholder engagement knowledge, and years of experience in dealing with government departments on both policy influence and funding.
This website describes the kinds of support I can offer to local authorities, and to give you an example of the breadth and depth of my knowledge and experience, here are a few more examples of projects I’ve recently led on:
· Designing and leading the development of the national 'Impact' community carbon footprinting tool (www.impact-tool.org.uk),
· Designing the original Action Planning and Levers of Influence approach used in the CCC's Sixth Carbon Budget Local Authorities framework report (access via the downloads page: https://climateguide.co.uk/downloads)
· Acting as co-ordinator and lead author for a sector-wide response to the government's proposed 2021 Planning Reforms:
· Developing the first Carbon Literacy course designed for elected members, now part of the Carbon Literacy Project toolkit https://carbonliteracy.com/toolkits/local-authorities/
· Developing and piloting 'Future Energy Landscapes' (2016), a unique deliberative engagement technique for community-based energy planning, funded by the Campaign to Protect Rural England: https://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/future-energy-landscapes-a-new-approach-to-local-energy-planning/ (a full case study report can also be downloaded on the downloads page).
In addition, I provide Carbon Literacy training to officers, Senior Leadership Teams and Elected Members at a range of local authorities, from small rural districts to major cities. See the Carbon Literacy training page for further detail.
