Facilitating a Nationwide Climate Conversation Initiative for the Welsh Government
The Welsh Government appointed Freshwater to deliver the promotion and project management of its Climate Conversation Fund as part of Wales Climate Week 2024. The purpose of the fund was to support communities to hold their own events around the Week to encourage community conversations on the theme of ‘how Wales can adapt to our changing climate’. The community events, held between November 2024 and January 2025, sought to gather insights on public concerns climate change, with a particular focus on gathering the views of young people and marginalised groups most likely to be impacted by climate change.
Brief
The Welsh Government, through its Climate Conversations Fund, aimed to support organisations to organise and host local events across Wales.
The objective was to gather data and insight on public concerns, identify solutions for mitigating climate-related risks and explore opportunities for helping vulnerable communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Freshwater was appointed to administer the fund, manage the application process, recruit and provide guidance to successful applicants and support event facilitation, ensuring broad representation and the collection of evidence to inform future climate action policies.
To read our full Wales Climate Week case study, click here.
81 applications & 64 post-event reports
received for Climate Conversation events
19 out of 22 local
authority areas covered by the events
3,800 attendees
at Climate Conversation events across Wales
I felt the process was very user friendly and I didn't have any problems in following the different stages of the application. I found the resource pack very helpful and any queries I had, I was able to email Wales Climate Week and I would always receive a prompt and helpful response. Wales Climate Week made it very easy and were excellent at responding to questions. I think they did an excellent job of making it easy.
Climate Conversation Event participant
Delivery
Freshwater managed the entire process, from creating and overseeing the online application process and providing guidance to successful applicants, to ensuring that events were executed and post-event reports were submitted on time and in line with the Welsh Government’s criteria.
We launched an accessible online application platform to streamline the submission process and clarify eligibility requirements. Throughout the application period, we maintained clear communication with applicants, offering support and even hosting a virtual meeting for successful applicants to explain event guidelines and provide tips for successful event organisation and reporting.
During the campaign roll-out, we created a detailed Organisers’ Pack which was sent to all Climate Conversation hosts to ensure all events adhered to the theme of ‘adapting to our changing climate’ and that hosts collected the necessary data to complete viable reports. We also encouraged participation from marginalised groups, especially those who are often overlooked, such as digitally excluded individuals, children, young people and older people.
Results
The Climate Conversations Fund exceeded expectations in terms of reach and engagement. From 81 applications submitted, a total of 74 were approved, which exceeded the client’s target of 40 approved applications by 85%. The initiative helped to successfully gather valuable insights from over 3,800 attendees of events, held in 19 of the 22 local authority areas in Wales, with the majority of hosts welcoming participants from marginalised groups. Post-event reports provided the Welsh Government with essential data on public concerns about climate change and the readiness of communities to address its impacts, as well as generating comprehensive feedback on Welsh Government policies and priorities.
Key statistics:
- 81 total applications received
- 64 reports submitted
- 19 out of 22 local authority areas covered
- 3,800 attendees at Climate Conversation events
Page views increased dramatically, from 844 in 2022 to 14,049 in 2024, reflecting significant growth in interest.
Applications surged by 523%, from 13 in 2022 to 81 in 2024, showing increased awareness and participation.
The number of submitted reports increased from 11 in 2022 to 64 in 2024, showing growing impact.
Local authority coverage expanded from five in 2022 to 19 in 2024, highlighting rapid outreach growth.
Attendees grew from 416 in 2022 to around 3,800 in 2024, with average attendance per event rising from 37 to 61.