The UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development, known as MONDIACULT 2022, opens on 28 September in Mexico City, Mexico. The Conference, which brings together national Ministers of Culture from around the world, is meant to be ‘a renewed reflection on cultural policies to tackle global challenges and outline immediate and future priorities.’

The members of the Climate Heritage Network proudly present their report on the CHN’s activities for 2021. The Network’s second full year of operation saw CHN members around the world laying foundations, creating tools and resources, building teams – and taking culture-based climate action. Individually, these accomplishments helped drive forward transformative change.

On the eve of International Women’s Day 2022 (8 March), the Climate Heritage Network is delighted to announce Rosie Paul as the CHN’s Gender and Climate Change Issue Lead. Paul is the principal architect at Masons Ink Studio, a women-led, Bengaluru, India-based design and construction firm that uses heritage and traditional knowledge to push the boundaries of how we make climate-resilient places, while working to empower women in the construction sector.

The long awaited International Co-Sponsored Meeting on Culture, Heritage and Climate Change (ICSM CHC) has arrived! This groundbreaking meeting will be of interest to anyone concerned about the better incorporation of culture and heritage into climate science and research.

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. 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.

It’s great to talk about mobilising arts, culture & heritage for climate action but what does that really mean & how do we do it? In the run up to the 2021 UN Climate Conference, COP26, the Climate Heritage Network in partnership with Historic England presents Climate Heritage Mobilisation @ Climate Fridays — a webinar series that explores how we dismantle barriers to greater engagement by cultural operators in climate action, and how we scale up and out culture-based solutions to climate change.

The Climate Heritage Network invites you to Climate Heritage Narratives: Youth-Led Intergenerational Dialogues, a series of events occuring from 27 September to 4 October, 2021, designed to enable intergenerational exchanges between youth, emerging professionals and experts engaged in culural heritage and climate change, with youth taking the lead.

The Italian Ministry of Culture has announced the final programme for groundbreaking webinars on 12 and 13 April, 2021, that mark the first time that the topic of culture and climate change will be featured at the G20.

Climate Heritage Network members from around the world are contributing to a new project to support climate action in Africa through cultural heritage. The project will pilot application of the Climate Vulnerability Index for World Heritage properties in Africa (the CVI-Africa project).

The immense potential of cultural heritage to drive just and transformative climate action often goes untapped. World Urban Forum 10 broke new ground in the global recognition of this potential, boosting efforts to mobilise arts, culture and heritage for climate action across the globe.

There’s no just transition — no carbon transformation — without human creativity, heritage values, social license and cultural capital. Arts, culture and heritage offer immense potential to drive climate action in cities and regions and support equitable transitions towards low carbon, climate resilient development.