Impatience Earth supports, challenges, and inspires philanthropic funders to make bolder decisions on the climate emergency. 

In this guest post, Yasmin Ahammad, Impatience Earth’s co-CEO, tells us how the Council Climate Action Scorecards have informed the advice they give to grantmakers.

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As part of our work, we often do deep dives into areas of funding that we believe need more resourcing and attention. 

In 2025, we wanted to understand the funding landscape for place-based resilience in the UK. Our brilliant Associate, Liz Gadd, did a rapid landscape review in early 2025, and included the Council Climate Action Scorecards — a joint project between Climate Emergency UK and mySociety — as a resource, noting that these were “perhaps the best reference point for funders” when understanding how well local authorities are doing on climate action in their areas. 

This landscape review kicked off a new area of work for us around how we build intersectional climate resilience in the UK, and as we refine the strategy and start looking at specific geographies with and for funders, the Scorecards will be an important reference point. 

I personally came across the Scorecards again sometime after their 2025 update. I remember getting so excited about how they could be used to pressure local authorities on their climate (in)action that I immediately sent a message to my local Friends of the Earth group, suggesting they use them to support their local campaigns. It turns out that Friends of the Earth were already on it, and were offering training to their members on how to use them. 

Here is a specific example of how we’ve used Scorecards in our work with philanthropic funders: In the second half of 2025, we were commissioned by the Barnwood Trust to help them understand how climate change is affecting the communities they work with in Gloucestershire: people with mental health conditions, neurodivergent people and disabled people. 

Liz Gadd led the research, alongside our Senior Research Officer, James Hibberd. Using the guiding questions from the Barnwood Trust as a basis for the research, what they found lent itself to two separate reports: 

1. A national-level report that resulted in a published primer for funders on how climate change is already shaping the lives of people living with these conditions, and how their genuine inclusion in climate decision-making and action leads to much better results. 
2. A regional-level report that builds on the findings of the national research, but looking at the particular climate impacts that Gloucester would face; what is happening in terms of existing action on climate and disability in the region; and our recommendations on moving forward with this work for the Barnwood Trust team. 

It was when researching the regional context that we looked at the Council Climate Action Scorecards for the results of relevant councils within the county of Gloucestershire. 

We included screenshots and links from the Scorecards website, highlighting where the County and District Councils were doing well, and what they could improve upon. 

This was really helpful in terms of pulling together a comprehensive picture on what is happening around climate in the county: local council action could be assessed alongside voluntary sector action, how well resourced it all is, and how Barnwood Trust could do as a convenor and funder.  

The Barnwood team have told us that the reports have given them the critical information they needed around the significance of the climate crisis in their region, and are currently working on adopting the recommendations so that climate change can be fully embedded in their work. 

Many thanks to Yasmin for sharing her experience.

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Image: Lulu Black