Edinburgh

The gift of climate and ecological emergency is that we all get to work together. Ordinary citizens and community groups naturally share what they learn, and what they know of what helps. Everyone can help, everyone has something to offer, everyone is welcome. We all need to design, make and grow a better future for ourselves, our communities and our world. Together we CAN. Yes we CAN.

The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Edinburgh.

• Edinburgh community resources is a separate page.

News

Networks and sustainability initiatives

• Friends of the Earth Edinburgh on facebook.com, added 14:16, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
• (GreenerLeith, Former charity now dissolved...twitter.com)

Edinburgh video

UK and international events

UK events

UK community action events

Global or international events

2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events

Social inclusion

• The Welcoming, added 14:45, 11 November 2021 (UTC)
• The Welcoming, ashden.org

From Wikipedia:Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty

Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty also known as ECAP, is a left-wing organisation which aims to be a solidarity network for working-class people particularly the unemployed and disabled. It is independent from government and operates by direct democracy.

It is one of many similar claimants groups set up with similar political purposes.

ECAP's website hosts benefit advice and articles about the group's activities.

The group has frequently been involved in opposition to benefit sanctions, opposition to workfare and fighting for the right to be accompanied at jobcentres ECAP has drawn inspiration from the advocacy of the Scottish Unemployed Workers Network and supported their member Tony Cox during his trial.

ECAP have held presentations alongside speakers like Lynne Friedli and the IWW.

Its affiliate, Edinburgh Claimants has been acting as an independent advocacy group and claimants union since the 1980s as part of the Edinburgh Unemployed Workers Centre. It has been based at the autonomous centre of Edinburgh since 1997.

ECAP is a member of the Action Against Austerity network and signatory to "From Yes to Action"

The group is featured in the end credits of Ken Loach's film I Daniel Blake due to its role in helping script writer Paul Laverty with researching the film.

• Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty

Climate action

• Net Zero Edinburgh, added 12:42, 10 November 2021 (UTC)

Sustainable transport activism

Maps

• Edinburgh's Innertube Map, cycling and walking routes, link checked 11:32, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

Walkable city

Given that Edinburgh is a small, relatively walkable city, travelling by foot is a common means of transport for the majority of citizens who live, work or visit the city. Like most urban zones, pedestrian density is at its highest in the commercial core of the city, where the majority of shops, businesses and offices are located, with pedestrian density tailing off rapidly through the inner city to the suburbs. In Edinburgh, pedestrian density is at its highest around Princes Street, George Street, Rose Street, the Royal Mile, the North and South Bridges as well as George IV Bridge. These are the areas where the majority of city centre shops are located, as well as bars, restaurants, pubs and tourist attractions such as the Scott Monument, Edinburgh Castle and the Holyrood Palace.

Unlike Glasgow, most of the city centre is not pedestrianised, with the exception of Rose Street (parallel to Princes Street), which is pedestrianised along its length. A section of the Royal Mile - one of the main tourist streets in Edinburgh - from the junction of George IV Bridge (Melbourne Place) to the junction with North Bridge, is pedestrianised through the use of automatic bollards which only give access to authorised vehicles. This is an area with pavement cafes and bars with tables outside.

Trams

From Wikipedia:Edinburgh Trams

Edinburgh Trams is a tramway in Edinburgh, Scotland, operated by Edinburgh Trams Ltd. It is an 18.5-kilometre (11.5 mi) line between Newhaven and Edinburgh Airport, with 23 stops.

A modern tram network for Edinburgh was proposed by Edinburgh Council in 1999, with detailed design work being performed over the next decade. Construction of the first phase, linking Edinburgh Airport with Newhaven, began in June 2008, but encountered substantial delays and cost overruns. During 2009, a 15-year contract held by Transdev to operate and maintain the tram network was cancelled. By mid-2010, cancellation of the whole project was being publicly considered; during the following year it was announced that the length of the tram network would be drastically curtailed. Prior to August 2011, the project was overseen by Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE), a company wholly owned by Edinburgh Council; TIE was disbanded largely due to its failings on the project's delivery. The troubled construction of the Edinburgh Tram was subject to a lengthy formal inquiry, chaired by Lord Hardie, which concluded that failings by Edinburgh Council and its arms-length companies were largely to blame for the delays in construction.

On 31 May 2014, the tramway was officially opened to the public, but only between the airport and York Place. The service is operated by Edinburgh Trams Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for Edinburgh, in which the City of Edinburgh Council has a controlling interest. The service is equipped with 27 CAF Urbos 3 vehicles. It runs at a seven-minute interval for most of the day, seven days per week. Fares and ticketing are integrated with Lothian Buses, with the same fares charged on both systems, except for services to the airport where the tram is more expensive. In May 2025, contactless payment was introduced for the trams, with a 'tap on, tap off' scheme.

Since the original opening of the tramway, various changes have been implemented. In December 2016, the Edinburgh Gateway tram stop, between Gyle Centre and Gogarburn, was opened to provide an interchange between Edinburgh Trams and the Fife Circle Line and Edinburgh to Aberdeen Lines. Following the council's approval for an extension of the line to Newhaven in March 2019, construction work commenced that November, and was completed on schedule in June 2023, despite being delayed for three months by the coronavirus pandemic.

In August 2025, a public consultation was launched for an additional extension serving the north–south axis of the city. This could link Granton in the north via either the Roseburn Path to Murrayfield or via Orchard Brae and Dean Bridge to the west end of Princes Street. There are also proposals to run trams over North Bridge and South Bridge to Cameron Toll then along Old Dalkeith Road to the Royal Infirmary and BioQuarter. The cost is estimated at between £2bn and £2.9bn.

• Edinburgh Trams

Waterways

The Union Canal was opened in 1822 and provides an inland waterway link from Edinburgh to Falkirk and from there to Glasgow via the Forth and Clyde Canal. It is currently owned by the public corporation Scottish Canals and chiefly used for leisure purposes.

Cycling activism

• Bike for Refugees Scotland, Glasgow and Edinburgh Community Hubs. added 15:59, 7 November 2023 (UTC)
• The Bike Station, charity bike shop that sells refurbished bikes and reinvesta into local community programmes across Edinburgh and Perth. link checked 11:57, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

From Wikipedia:Spokes (Lothian)

Spokes, the Lothian Cycle Campaign, was started in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1977 to campaign for better facilities for cyclists.

One of its first campaigns was for cycling to be allowed on Middle Meadow Walk (through The Meadows). After initial opposition, Edinburgh Corporation agreed. Since then Edinburgh's councils have gradually increased on and off-road facilities to encourage cycling. Pressure has been kept up by Spokes and its members.

Spokes has been actively involved in Safe Routes to School projects since 1996.

Spokes also publishes a cycle map for Edinburgh, and others for surrounding council areas.

Cycling in Edinburgh

Since 1999 the percentage of all trips in Edinburgh made by bicycle has risen by an eighth, however travelling by bicycle still accounts for less than 2% of all trips taken by Edinburgh residents, with bicycle use lower than in many other European cities such as Amsterdam or Paris. Like most cities cycling is seen as a clean, environmentally friendly method of transportation, which needs little space, the provision of few, inexpensive facilities as well as a means of attempting to cut down on traffic congestion.

At present there are around 75 km of off-road cycleways in the Edinburgh area, with a similar length on on-road cycleways in the city. Greenways, which are the car-free bus corridors on the main radial routes into the city centre double up as cycle lanes.

Many improvements in facilities for cyclists in Edinburgh can be attributed to Spokes, the Lothian Cycle Campaign, formed in 1977. Attempts to make Edinburgh more "cycle friendly" have been made, particularly by Spokes. Some cyclists remain unconvinced that the promise of a "Model Cycle-Friendly City" has been achieved.

Open spaces

Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust

Trees, woodland and forest

• One million tree city, edinburgh.gov.uk, Towards a net zero Edinburgh by 2030: "As of summer 2025, we estimate over 884,000 trees across the City of Edinburgh urban area." Project news, edinburgh.gov.uk

Coasts

• Edinburgh Shoreline, "community centred initiative celebrating the city’s 27km coastline, and around the rest of the Forth." added 14:24, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

About Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. It is located in Lothian on the Firth of Forth's southern shore.

Edinburgh is Scotland's second most populous city and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The official population estimates are 488,050 (2016) for the Locality of Edinburgh and 1,339,380 (2014) for the city region. Edinburgh lies at the heart of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland city region.

The city is known for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe, the latter being the world's largest annual international arts festival. Edinburgh's Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Edinburgh archive

Video

• Love Leith 2: Janet wins a cream tea in the Kirkgate for binning her litter, 2012, youtube.com

Past events

• Jun 17 - 18, 2017, The Power of Food Festival, weekend Festival celebrating community gardens in Edinburgh. Its purpose is to encourage greater societal wellbeing, environmental sustainability and social inclusion through the promotion of community food growing.
• Jun 9 - 19, 2016, Edinburgh Festival of Cycling