Climate Emergency Response Group (CERG):
Stakeholder engagement 2024

The Campaign Brief

Scotland has ambitious climate targets, but turning those ambitions into meaningful action remains a significant challenge. The Climate Emergency Response Group (CERG) is working to change that, championing stronger leadership, better governance and faster delivery of the action needed to tackle the climate emergency.

Cunningly Good Group has worked with CERG since 2021, providing strategic communications support to raise its profile, strengthen its influence within the Scottish Government and engage key stakeholders. In 2024, CERG tasked us with supporting its communications throughout the year, including the launch of its latest report, Stepping up to Delivery, in October 2024.

The report highlighted Scotland’s failure to meet its climate targets, with progress particularly slow in critical sectors including heat, transport and agriculture. It called for stronger leadership, a whole-government approach, improved governance and greater stakeholder engagement to accelerate climate action.

Our challenge was to ensure CERG’s findings and recommendations reached the right audiences, amplified its voice in Scotland’s climate debate and, crucially, encouraged meaningful discussion about how to turn ambition into delivery.

Cunningly Good Group’s Approach

We knew CERG had an important message to communicate. Our job was to help make it heard, understood and acted upon by those with the influence to drive change. We developed an integrated communications approach combining report design, digital communications, media engagement and stakeholder event management to maximise the impact of CERG’s work.

We designed Stepping up to Delivery, helping present its findings and recommendations in a clear, accessible format. To strengthen CERG’s digital presence, we created a dedicated LinkedIn page and supporting social media assets, providing a platform to communicate directly with stakeholders and build its profile.

The report was officially launched through CERG’s new LinkedIn channel, with members amplifying its messages through their own social media networks. An accompanying opinion piece in The Herald helped bring CERG’s concerns and recommendations to a wider audience.

But raising awareness was only part of the challenge. The next step was to bring the right people together to explore how progress could be accelerated.

In November 2024, we organised and managed a stakeholder event at Bank of Scotland’s headquarters at The Mound in Edinburgh, attended by more than 70 stakeholders. The event provided an opportunity to present the report, explore why climate action was not being delivered quickly enough, discuss proven approaches to effective delivery and consider how these could be applied across government. Importantly, it encouraged open discussion about how stakeholders could work together to move forward.

We also manage and host CERG’s website, ensuring the report and its recommendations remained accessible beyond the launch.

The Cunningly Good Results

Our integrated approach helped CERG communicate its message, expand its digital presence and bring key stakeholders together to focus on accelerating Scotland’s climate response.

Key outcomes included:

Stronger digital presence: Established CERG’s dedicated LinkedIn page, creating a new communications channel to raise awareness and engage stakeholders.
Amplified reach: Launched Stepping up to Delivery through coordinated social media activity, supported by CERG members sharing the report across their own networks.
Media visibility: Secured an opinion piece in The Herald, helping bring the report’s findings and recommendations into the wider public debate.
Meaningful stakeholder engagement: Successfully delivered an event attended by over 70 stakeholders, creating a forum for discussion about the barriers to climate action and practical approaches to accelerating delivery.
Lasting access to information: Designed and published the report, with ongoing access through CERG’s website, managed and hosted by Cunningly Good Group.

Crucially, our support went beyond simply launching a report. By combining communications, media engagement and face-to-face discussion, we helped CERG take its findings to the audiences that mattered and create opportunities for constructive conversations about delivering change.