East Lothian is uniquely concerned about its coastline, calling for unique community-led climate action.
Over the last year we asked you to share your experiences of climate change in your community. In collaboration with five other Climate Hubs – with Climate Ready South East Scotland – between May 2024 to May 2025 the project collected over a thousand voices from Fife and the Forth Valley to the coasts of East Lothian.
These stories helped build a “Story Map” to help demonstrate the changing attitudes across the region in response to climate and extreme weather. The results of which you can see on our website: eastlothianclimatehub.org/climate-stories/
Categorising the stories into examples of Social, Environmental and Economic impacts, they were analysed for sentiment and attitudes towards climate change.
Thank you to everyone who took time to submit their experiences. The website is still open and CRSES has expressed a desire to continue collecting your stories for a fuller picture of the lived experiences of the Climate Emergency. However from this year-long snapshot there were clear trends.
“90% of responses expressed negative emotions about climate change.”
While there were a few respondents that saw a silver lining in the rainfall patterns and ecological changes, the remainder of the stories were mostly neutral.
The CRSES story map shows “significant climate change impacts that transcend local authority boundaries”. Within the map there were also clear local concerns. Nowhere did the map speak loudest about climate than East Lothian.
East Lothian demonstrated the “highest level of concern about coastal erosion and sea level rise” out of the six regions.
East Lothian Primary Concerns:
Storms (52%), coastal change (44%), and biodiversity changes (34%)
As well as concerns for infrastructure and flood protection, there was a strong emotional connection to the East Lothian shoreline. Many stories identified strongly with coastal areas and were distressed by their deterioration.
The 44 per cent of stories mentioned sea and shoreline climate change. That might be expected from a coastal region, but as part of the bigger picture it tied in to an interesting stories map trend.
Low-lying, coastal regions reported higher levels of concern than inland areas. East Lothian reported the highest levels of distress of all the regions surveyed.
Experiences of climate change from East Lothian were 96.3% negative, compared to 75.6% in West Lothian – though the overwhelming majority of stories were from respondents concerned about the changes in weather and ecology.
In East Lothian many of the responses were about visible changes to the shoreline following storms and damage to places that residents have an emotional connection with.
Local authorities ranked by level of climate concern
- East Lothian: 96.3% negative sentiment
- Midlothian: 92.9% negative sentiment
- City of Edinburgh: 90.7% negative sentiment
- Scottish Borders: 90.2% negative sentiment
- Fife: 86.2% negative sentiment
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West Lothian: 75.3% negative sentiment
Source: CRSES Story Map, Lived Experience Report
CCAP: What is being done to protect East Lothian’s shoreline?
The East Lothian Council is currently developing a Coastal Change Adaption Plan (CCAP).
The aim is to develop a long-term plan for adapting and managing the coastline by 2026, with help from local communities. The experiences submitted as part of the Story Map are being used as part of the public consultation to identify areas at risks of coastal change.
East Lothian Council’s Head of Infrastructure, Tom Reid said: “This insight can help us to develop a long-term strategy which guides how East Lothian manages its coastline, protects communities and builds resilience into future planning and resilience.”
The consultation period closed at the beginning of September. (flooding@eastlothian.gov.uk or by mail Flooding Team, East Lothian Council, Penston House, Macmerry, East Lothian, EH33 1EX)
If you have already submitted your story via the map, there is no need to re-submit your information.
The information and stories submitted will be used to shape a series of public events and workshops, early next year, as part of Phase 2.
Having led a well attended event on Coastal Adaptation in Prestonpans in April this year, the East Lothian Climate Hub is aware there is plenty of appetite for community-led action and solutions to look after our coastal areas. From physical coastal defenses to dune restoration there is plenty of scope for community-level initiatives.
We look forward to sharing the materials and hosting similar events that address the key concern for East Lothian and providing opportunities to get engaged.
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