Historic Environment Scotland Brings Katherine Hayhoe to Edinburgh Castle

Updates: Please note the program will start at 6:30pm GMT, not 7pm as earlier announced. This event will now be livestreamed only. We hope many of you will be able to join us remotely. The livestream will start at 7pm on Sunday March 15 and you will be able to send in questions for the audience Q&A via the Historic Environment Scotland Facebook Event page or the livestream itself.

In a stroke of #ClimateHeritage genius, on 15 March, Historic Environment Scotland is bringing one of the world’s leading climate change communicators to Edinburgh Castle to explore how we can inspire people to take climate action. The program, entitled “Now we have your attention: let’s talk climate action,” promises to break new ground in exploring the cultural heritage opportunities for climate change communication.

Professor Hayhoe will share her experience of finding effective ways of communicating the climate crisis. Following this keynote, she will be joined by a panel of invited experts who will each share their experience of talking about climate change and how they have used their varying areas of expertise to reach new audiences, changing hearts and minds along the way.

Panellists include Sara Crofts, Chief Executive at Icon (The Institute of Conservation); Dr Ewan Hyslop, Head of Technical Research and Science at Historic Environment Scotland; and Dr Matt Winning, a London-based Scottish comedian and environmental economist whose work speaks to the importance of using humour to discuss climate change. Sara Crofts is a Council Member of Europa Nostra and a member of the Climate Heritage Network Steering Committee; Ewan Hyslop is the Co-Chair of the Climate Heritage Network.

In late 2019 the CHN released its initial plan to help mobilise arts, culture and heritage for climate action at a side event held in Madrid at COP25, the 2019 UN Climate Summit. Dubbed the Madrid-to-Glasgow Arts, Culture and Heritage Climate Action Plan, its release kicks off a year of culture-based climate action that will culminate at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.

The first of the eight projects included in the Plan aims to promote climate action by better communicating the connection with cultural heritage. It will be led by none other than Icon’s Sara Crofts. Twinning Sara and CHN Co-Chair Ewan Hyslop with Katharine Hayhoe gives the CHN’s communications planning a huge boost, aside from all the other benefits of this valuable programme. Hayoe is not only an accomplished atmospheric scientist who studies climate but a remarkable communicator who has received the American Geophysical Union’s climate communication prize, the Stephen Schneider Climate Communication award, and been named to a number of lists including Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People,

This event will be live streamed only on the Historic Environment Scotland Facebook page and recorded for release on their YouTube channel at a later date.