COP 27 Solutions Day: High Level Focus on Culture-based Climate Action
During Solutions Day at the 27th Session of the Conference of the Parties of the UN Climate Conference (COP27), the Climate Heritage Network (CHN) [1] with the support of the COP27 Presidency, the Government of Egypt, and with the endorsement of the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, presented an initiative to launch and promote ‘The Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration on Culture-based Climate Action.’
The CHN Initiative, which has been formally endorsed by the government of Jordan and supported by the Government of Egypt, was discussed during a Ministerial dialogue session in Sharm El Sheikh, in which the impact of climate change on culture, cultural heritage and landscapes was highlighted as well as the role of culture in helping imagine and realize a low carbon climate resilient future.
Minister of Environment of Egypt, Dr Yasmine Fouad and Minister of Culture of Egypt, Dr Nevin Al-Kilany, participated in the discussion, and with interventions from Noura Bint Mohammad Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Youth of the United Arab Emirates, host of COP28 next year. On the Jordanian side, HE Eng. Mohammed Al – Najjar, Minister of Water and Irrigation; HE Amjad Adaileh, the Jordanian Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt; HE Ambassador Yousef Nasser, Director, Adaptation, UNFCC, attended the session.
In addition to the ministers from the three countries, interventions were made in the session by Ambassador Dahlia Abdel-Fattah, Director General of International Relations and Treaties, Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Dr Sally Mabrouk, Chef de cabinet of ICESCO Director General Office, ICESCO, Dr Debra Roberts, Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group 2, Uili Lousi, Cultural Advisor, Kingdom of Tonga, and Andrew Potts, Coordinator the Climate Heritage Network.
The Sharm El Sheikh Declaration, which was endorsed by all participants of the Ministerial dialogue session, seeks to build on previous international climate agreements and progress made to enhance climate action with culture-based solutions, and to bring culture more directly into the climate agenda and the COP process. The Declaration takes into consideration the Glasgow Climate Pact emphasizing the role of local communities’ culture and knowledge; the Paris Agreement[2]; the increasing engagement of IPCC with culture, heritage, social science, and with the valorization of diverse knowledge systems; the Rome Declaration adopted at the 2021 meeting of the Ministers of Culture of the G20; the UNFCCC-UNESCO-Greek Government initiative on Climate Change and Cultural Heritage, and the final declaration of the 2022 Naples Conference of the Ministers of Culture of the Euro-Mediterranean Region. The Sharm Elsheikh Declaration also draws inspiration from the Manifesto launched by the Climate Heritage Network on the eve of COP 27 which was signed by over 300 networks and organisations from all over the world.
The Declaration stresses that culture, from arts to heritage, plays a fundamental role in helping people to imagine and realize low carbon, just, climate resilient futures and that culture-based climate action has a crucial role to play in meeting the objectives of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including those related to mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage, and in promoting climate-resilient sustainable development. It urges state parties and civil society organisations, to develop and implement culture- based climate action strategies that emphasize arts, culture and heritage programs on climate change. It encourages governments – at all levels of governance- to develop strategies that incorporate climate change in cultural policy. It recognizes the combined role that ministries of culture and ministries of environment play in addressing climate change. It also underlines the need to better understand the role of culture and heritage in enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change, and recognizes the need to increase cooperation through multilateral, bilateral and regional complementary initiatives that aim to raise awareness and enhance understanding of the role of arts, culture and heritage on action on climate change and its impacts, opportunities and co-benefits.
The session concluded with an invitation to the hosts of COP28 to convene in Dubai a high-level ministerial round table on culture and heritage-based climate solutions to explore new frameworks for collaboration on culture-based strategies that will both accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy and facilitate adaptation to the impacts of climate change.
Press Contacts: Andrew Potts, Climate Heritage Network Secretariat, +1 202 215-0993 andrew.potts@climateheritage.org
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Notes to editors:
[1] The Climate Heritage Network is a global network whose member organisations are committed to unlocking the power of culture from arts to heritage to help people imagine and realise low carbon, just, climate resilient futures. Launched in 2019, the CHN seeks to scale up culture-based climate action and to foreground the cultural dimensions of climate policy through coordination and cooperation among its members. CHN members work with all types of culture including arts and music; museums and libraries; landscapes, heritage sites and archaeology; and intangible heritage, traditional knowledge, and Indigenous ways of knowing. CHN members include units of government at all levels, Indigenous Peoples’ organisations, civil society, universities, cultural institutions, artists, creative industries, and design and other businesses.
[2] The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this long-term temperature goal, countries aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate neutral world by mid-century. The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.
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