Climate Heritage Network Launches Plan to Mobilise Arts, Culture and Heritage for Climate Action
MADRID, Spain, 5 Dec, 2019 – The newly formed Climate Heritage Network released its first action plan to help mobilise arts, culture and heritage for climate action at an 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 in 2020 at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. The Madrid event took place in the COP25 pavilion of the United Kingdom, host of COP26.
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. The Climate Heritage Network was launched in October 2019 by over 70 arts, culture and heritage organisations from around the world committed to flipping this paradigm by emphasizing the role arts, culture and heritage can play in achieving the ambitions of the Paris Agreement.
The new Madrid-to-Glasgow Arts, Culture and Heritage Climate Action Plan aims to help deliver on this result via eight scalable, culture-based climate action tools and policy solutions. Several hundred people participated in the plan’s development, beginning at the Climate Heritage Mobilization @ Global Climate Action Summit held in San Francisco in 2018. Over 200 participants helped refine the plan during the Climate Heritage Network’s Global Launch event hosted by Historic Environment Scotland in Edinburgh on 24 October 2019.
The Action Plan will be implemented on a volunteer basis by working groups comprised of CHN’s members around the world. The resulting collaborations will bring together culture organization from across the globe and across the arts, culture and heritage spectrum in unique partnerships united by a common commitment to accelerate action on climate change.
The first of the eight activities included in the Plan focuses on improving climate communications and aims to promote climate action through more effectively illustrating the potential for cultural heritage to address the challenges of climate change. It will be led by the UK’s Institute of Conservation (Icon) with support from a coalition of organisations including the Union of Concerned Scientists, Historic Environment Scotland and the Built Environment Scotland Forum.
A second activity co-led by the Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), the University of California San Diego and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography will focus on making the cases for valuing traditional knowledge as part of climate change technology. The activity will be supported by the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center, the US National Trust for Historic Preservation, Historic England and other cultural organisations from around the world.
Another of the activities aims to address the role historic and most existing buildings can play in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the building sector. The California Office of Historic Preservation and the Zero Net Carbon Collaboration for Existing and Historic Buildings (ZNCC) will co-lead the activity which aims to gather data on GHG reduction benefits of building reuse and retrofit that could ultimately lead to the development of a tool for calculating GHG emissions reductions associated with building reuse and retrofit measures. The American Institute of Architects and other partners will also participate.
The cultural dimensions of climate adaptation will also be a focus. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) will lead an activity to recommend practices for mainstreaming culture into climate action plans and adaptation frameworks. The activity could include developing a data base of relevant provisions from local, regional and national climate plans that address the role of arts, culture or heritage, including provisions on respecting the cultural rights and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples. This activity also contributes to the European Union’s Workplan for Culture 2019-22 and the European Commission’s European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage, which for the first time contain a climate change cluster.
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, will look at ways to better coordinate heritage safeguarding and climate action by promoting strong linkages to urban and territorial planning policies and impact assessment processes. Using culture to promote climate resilient sustainable development will be the subject of a companion activity led by United Cities and Local Government (UCLG) in connection with the global campaign of cultural networks (#culture2030goal) on culture in sustainable development.
A key focus of COP25 is the review of the proposed two-year work plan developed for the UNFCCC Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP). LCIPP was formed to strengthen knowledge, technologies, practices and efforts of local communities and indigenous peoples related to addressing and responding to climate change. Another activity included in the Madrid-to-Glasgow Arts, Culture and Heritage Climate Action Plan is designed to support the cultural dimensions of the LCIPP. The activity will be led by the International Indian Treaty Council and the Chiang Mai City Arts and Cultural Centre.
Climate change is one of the most significant and fastest growing threats to people and their cultural heritage worldwide. 2020 will be a critical year for climate action with new national climate plans known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) due under the Paris Agreement from the countries of the world. The Madrid-to-Glasgow Arts, Culture and Heritage Climate Action Plan aims to foreground the cultural dimensions of global climate action and to create a roadmap that will allow every arts, culture and heritage-related organization to do its part.
Quotes:
American Institute of Architects
“Climate change affects us all, but architecture and historic buildings provide answers in reducing carbon emissions through building reuse and energy efficiency. In order to ensure our future and meet the challenge of this global crisis, we must act collectively to move the needle on this urgent priority. It will take the efforts of every nation, every government, and every person. The AIA is committed to action, climate action, and will support architects—and the entire design and construction field—in addressing this critical effort.” -Robert Ivy, FAIA, EVP/Chief Executive Officer
California Office of Historic Preservation
“Cultural heritage IS climate action! With every conversation, every new partner, every opportunity, we advance greater solutions into action. Cultural heritage supports communities towards a low carbon, resilient future. Further, faster, together!” – Julianne Polanco, State Historic Preservation Officer
Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Centre
“In Chiang Mai the connection between our culture, our life, and our environment is a mutual relationship, a strength, and inseparable. In the current situation, when we face climate problems that are rapidly escalating, the power of arts and culture can be used. We are working as a coalition to use cultural power to restore and protect the environment and cross the boundaries of familiarity, no longer separate the government or general public. Artists have established ‘Art for Air’ as fundraising for climate action groups and combined to create art for communicating climate issues. Chefs have formed ‘The Forest of our Breath’ in order to raise funds for indigenous villages to help extinguish forest fires. And we, the Cultural Centre, are also working to incorporate “Culture – Nature” as part of our mission.” – Suwaree Wongkongkaew, Director
Historic Environment Scotland | Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba
“Successfully transitioning to a low-carbon future and adapting to environmental changes already underway requires individuals, organisations, governments and communities to work together. The Climate Heritage Network provides an opportunity to develop new and creative partnerships, strengthen those that already exist and pool expertise and knowledge from all corners of the world. Together, we can demonstrate what meaningful climate action looks like, and share our experiences and perspective with others.” – Dr Ewan Hyslop, Head of Technical Research & Science
International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
“Climate change will test the creativity and cohesion of communities like never before. Planning for climate change requires a multi-generational time horizon. Solving it demands circular economy approaches that promote the reuse & conservation of resources. These are all core consideration of cultural heritage. ICOMOS looks forward to leading the Madrid-to-Glasgow Arts, Culture and Heritage Climate Action Plan’s project on mainstreaming these cultural dimensions into climate planning in order to produce more effective climate responses at the local, regional and national levels.” – Andrew Potts, Coordinator, Climate Change and Heritage Working Group
National Trust for Historic Preservation (US)
“The National Trust realizes the potential of the culture and heritage sectors in contributing toward climate impact solutions and is proud to be part of a network mobilizing for action on this front. The Madrid-to-Glasgow Arts, Culture and Heritage Climate Action Plan provides a framework for scalable, culture-based climate action tools and policy solutions for relevant change.” – Katherine Malone-France
University of California San Diego and Scripps Institution of Oceanography
“Climate change affects everyone unequally. Cultural heritage helps understand the nuances of that inequality influencing social vulnerability. It also provides grounding for recovery and restructuration: cultural heritage helps to mitigate the trauma of migration, it helps remember ancestors in lost lands, it helps remember how our communities have faced past changes. Cultural Heritage helps us understand what makes us human, and how much we stand to lose if we do not act now. Successful mitigation of climate change, and adaptation to new conditions, require cultural diversity. As representative of the Anthropology Department of the University of California San Diego and professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography we look forward to working together with the Climate Heritage Network to develop the Climate Action Plan during the next year leading to COP26 in Glasgow.” – Isabel C. Rivera-Collazo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor on Biological, Ecological and Human Adaptation to Climate Change
For more information, contact: Andrew Potts, Climate Heritage Network Secretariat, +1 202 215-0993 andrew.potts@icomos.org.
What is the Climate Heritage Network?
The Climate Heritage Network is a voluntary, mutual support network of local and city, state/provincial and regional, Indigenous Peoples’, and national arts, culture and heritage governmental and quasi-governmental boards, offices, ministries and site management agencies as well as NGOs, universities, businesses and other organizations committed to aiding their communities in tackling climate change and achieving the ambitions of the Paris Agreement.