Amplifying the voices of Arts, Culture and Heritage at COP26
For over a year, Climate Heritage Network members and partners have been working on ways to signal boost cultural voices at COP26 and beyond. The need is urgent. The collective national contributions (NDCs) submitted in advance of COP26 fall dangerously short of keeping alive the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, threatening to lock-in catastrophic climate impacts to people and the planet. We’re excited to share with you some what we planned as well as some of the ways that you can participate wherever you are in the world. To help you get started, visit our Climate Heritage at COP26: Resources Page for free communications ideas, social media cards, and more.
How You Can Participate
Read on for more information on each of this opportunities!
Join one the Many Culture-Related Events being held within COP26 offering Virtual Participation
Cultural voices will be stronger at COP26 than ever — and the great news is that most events allow for virtual participation. Check out our guide to some of the key culture & heritage-related events at the 2021 UN Climate Conference and sign up to join the COP26 conversation.
Sign the Culture at COP Manifesto
Accelerating Climate Action through the Power of Arts, Culture and Heritage: A Manifesto for COP26 on Keeping 1.5° Alive was created by a diverse drafting team and presents a set of high level messages on the role culture can play in keeping the goal of 1.5° Alive and pursuing a resilient world. We invite all individuals and organisation around the world to sign-on to this Manifesto and consider using its themes in their own distinctive COP26-related messaging. Culture voices are climate voices and, together, we will be heard. #CultureCOP26 #ClimateHeritage #CultureKeeping1.5Alive
Visit the Culture at COP26 Website
The Culture at COP website showcases who’s doing what, with comprehensive listings of COP26-related art, culture and heritage events around the world. If you’re throwing your own virtual or in-person event, reach diverse audiences by listing it on the web site; and visit the site often to find other culture-based climate action events in Glasgow, online, and at a venue near you, tailored to the issues being debated at COP26. #CultureCOP26 #ClimateHeritage #ClimateAction
Check out our New Climate Heritage Resource Library
The immense potential of cultural heritage to drive climate action and support just transitions by communities towards low carbon, climate-resilient futures often goes untapped. In December 2019 the newly formed Climate Heritage Network released its initial plan to mobilise arts, culture, and heritage for climate action at a side event held in Madrid at COP25. Dubbed the Madrid-to-Glasgow Arts, Culture, and Heritage Climate Action Plan, its release kicked off two years of culture-based climate action that is now culminating at COP26 in Glasgow. We’re thrilled to announce the release of the Climate Heritage Resource Library, a one-stop-shopping web site which collects the tools prepared as part of the Action Plan. Each of these resources is designed to help dismantle a different barrier to climate action by cultural actors and operators. Visit the Library today to discover how these resources can help you accelerate your climate action and to learn more about the CHN Working Groups that have created them.
Engage with the Issues the COP26 Delegates Are Debating
At the heart of COP26 are the round-the-clock government-to-government negotiations over issues central to whether and how the Paris Agreement is implemented. Culture has a lot to say on these issues but much of it goes unsaid. To help shift that paradigm, the Climate Heritage Network has prepared COP26 and Climate Policy: A Guide to the Cultural Dimensions. We’ve summarized some of the key issues being debated in the delegate hall in Glasgow and suggested entry points and areas of concern for cultural actors. And to help you join the conversation, we’re offering shareable cards that summarise in a social media-friendly way many of the cultural perspectives discussed in more detail in the Policy Guide.
Get Ready to Run the Race to Resilience
The announcement in September 2021 of the inclusion of Culture in the UN’s new Race to Resilience campaign marked a turning point for the mainstreaming of cultural considerations into climate action. Join us on 2 November for ‘A Culture of Resilience: Launch of the Climate Heritage Network Race to Resilience Campaign,’ and learn how cultural actors – from arts to heritage – can partner with this campaign in 2022. Together we can scale up the use of culture-based strategies for pursuing a resilient world where we don’t just survive climate stresses but thrive in spite of them. To get started, visit our Resource Page to find social media assets to help you showcase the many cultural dimensions of resilience during COP26 and beyond.The 2 November Launch event is one of almost a dozen virtual and hybrid culture-related resilience programmes that are being hosted in the COP26 Resilience Hub, for which the CHN serves as a Co-Lead. Sign up to the Resilience Hub in order to attend the 2 November Launch event virtually and explore all the other great Resilience Hub cultural events on offer at COP26. #RaceToResilience #ClimateHeritage #COPResilienceHub
