Follow us       |   Email  

Our challenge

Current efforts to adapt to the changing climate are quite small and incremental, or are often as a direct response to an immediate problem. They don’t really get to the heart of the issue, because adaptation sits within a wider economic, social and cultural system. A system which is often regarded as too complex to navigate and is often ignored as a consequence.  

About Clyde Rebuilt

The citizens of the Glasgow City Region face the risk of more frequent floods and other bad weather events, resulting in damage to homes, roads and railways, and stresses to hospitals and emergency services as global temperatures rise due to climate change. Clyde Rebuilt was a ground-breaking project in which representatives from across the region jointly developed interconnected projects for adapting to these climate change challenges by 2030.

Clyde Rebuilt brought together community groups, local councils, universities, businesses, government agencies and other bodies. They collaborated to identify a range of joined-up actions that can change the way the region’s society, economy and environment operate together, making them stronger as the effects of climate change become ever more apparent.

The new collective was based on the idea that climate change can best be tackled if different groups from one city or region join forces to find solutions to their specific problems. Clyde Rebuilt was formed by Climate Ready Clyde and EIT Climate-KIC, the EU’s climate innovation agency, that specializes, among other things, in identifying innovations to help regions both slow down climate change and deal with it.

Who we are

Clyde Rebuilt included a wealth of expertise through its partners and funders. It was led by Climate Ready Clyde, with technical, cultural, economic and governance expertise from Sniffer. Clyde Rebuilt had cultural expertise and understanding of creative arts in sustainability from charity Creative Carbon Scotland, and specialist climate change and economic expertise from research consultancy Paul Watkiss Associates. Clyde Rebuilt was part of EIT Climate-KIC “Deep Demonstration Resilient Regions” programme along with Andalusia in Spain, Nouvelle Aquitaine in France and the Dolomites area in Italy, three European regions that are also at risk from the impact of climate change.

How we worked with the Glasgow City Region

The Deep Demonstration approach focuses on a whole-system approach that looks at business, governance and behaviour changes, in addition to technological, environmental and social innovations that will accelerate progress.

The process involved identifying new levers in Glasgow City Region’s systems which have the potential to stimulate more transformational change, before piloting, evaluating, adjusting and scaling-up. These levers have then been used to identify large-scale innovation actions which will significantly accelerate adaptation progress.

During the development of the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan, the Clyde Rebuilt project engaged with many new and different actors from within Glasgow City Region to map the systems relating to culture, governance and delivery of adaptation. Alongside this, it looked at new approaches for financing adaptation, including innovative instruments and with different actors. These have given us a ‘blueprint’ of 15 ‘positions’ – areas where urgent, innovative solutions could help accelerate the region’s climate resilient transition. We have also reviewed emerging solutions in these spaces from other cities and regions, to see what progress is already being made and how it might apply locally. The focus has been on identifying systemic actions in relation to extreme heat, health and wellbeing, and transformative finance solutions.

News and blog

Publications and outputs

Project partners

Clyde Rebuilt partner logos

Scroll to Top