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ClimateXChange:
The Campaign Brief
Scotland’s journey to net zero demands more than ambition. It requires fresh thinking, collaboration and practical solutions to tackle the climate challenges ahead.
With the Scottish Government’s next Climate Change Plan set to cover the period to 2040, ClimateXChange, Scotland’s centre of expertise on climate change, wanted to bring together leading experts to explore emerging research, identify opportunities and help shape future climate policy.
Cunningly Good Group was appointed in November 2024 to organise and deliver the Climate Horizon 2040 Conference, held on 4 February 2025 at the John McIntyre Conference Centre in Edinburgh.
Our challenge was to create an engaging, thought-provoking event that would bring together experts from across sectors, spark meaningful discussions and generate actionable insights to inform realistic and achievable climate policies for the 2030s and 2040s.
Crucially, the conference needed to do more than get people talking. It needed to capture their expertise and turn discussions into valuable recommendations for consideration by the Scottish Government.
Cunningly Good Group’s Approach
Bringing together some of Scotland’s leading climate experts is one thing. Creating an event that harnesses their collective knowledge to inform future policy is quite another.
Working closely with the ClimateXChange organising committee, we developed and delivered a comprehensive event management programme, taking care of everything from conference planning and programme development to speaker liaison, delegate engagement, design and on-the-day coordination.
A key part of our role was helping shape the conference content, reviewing 37 submitted session proposals to develop a programme that would stimulate discussion around Scotland’s future climate priorities.
We worked with ClimateXChange to identify and invite experts from universities, national and local government, businesses, delivery organisations and the third sector, ensuring a diverse range of perspectives and expertise.
Our team also developed the conference’s marketing materials, coordinated speakers and venue arrangements, and managed the event’s delivery, ensuring everything ran smoothly and discussions remained focused on the objectives.
But our work didn’t end when the delegates left. We captured insights from presentations, discussions and Q&A sessions, bringing together the key themes, challenges and opportunities in a report designed to inform future climate policy.
The Cunningly Good Results
The Climate Horizon 2040 Conference was the largest conference ever organised by ClimateXChange, successfully bringing together over 120 experts from across Scotland and creating an important platform for knowledge sharing, collaboration and discussion around the country’s climate future.
Key achievements included:
- Over 120 delegates attended, representing academia, national and local government, businesses, delivery organisations and the third sector.
- 37 session proposals considered to help develop a relevant and engaging conference programme.
- A successful full-day conference delivered on 4 February 2025, bringing together diverse perspectives on Scotland’s climate research priorities and future action.
- Key insights and emerging challenges captured from speaker presentations, discussions and Q&A sessions.
- A comprehensive post-event report produced and submitted to the Scottish Government for consideration in developing its next Climate Change Plan.
Importantly, the conference achieved its central objective of bringing together expertise and generating insights that could help inform Scotland’s response to climate change in the decades ahead. The final report ensured that the knowledge shared extended beyond the conference itself, providing a valuable resource for policymakers considering the opportunities, challenges and priorities on the horizon.
