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Culture: the ultimate renewable resource to tackle climate change

The clock is ticking to halt the devastating impact of climate change. According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2020 will be one of the three warmest years since records began. Oceans continue to heat and sea levels are rising, posing a particular threat to coastal settlements and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Disasters such as drought, floods and cyclones are becoming more frequent and more severe, leading to food and water scarcity. The societal impact is great, with potential conflict, economic upheaval, migration and the destruction of communities’ very way of life.

The year 2020 was set to be a “make or break” year, marking 5 years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, whereby 195 countries and the European Union agreed to limit gas emissions and keep the global temperature rise to under 1.5°. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the postponement of the 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) - COP 26 - (now scheduled for November 2021 in the United Kingdom), and the UN Biodiversity Conference COP 15, (scheduled for May 2021 in China). Nevertheless, United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, called for “bold climate action”, at the UN Climate Action Summit in September. His report refers, for the very first time, to the effects of climate change on cultural heritage in all its forms (from built to natural heritage and living heritage). Crucially, it entrusts UNESCO with the leadership role to drive research, analysis and action to sensitize Member States and mobilize action to step up protection and conservation efforts, as well as concerted measures for mitigation and adaptation.

Climate change is a complex issue, standing at the crossroads of science, ethics, society, education and, of course, culture – a dimension that has for too long been under-valued. Not only is climate change having a profound impact on culture – from the destruction of heritage, the disruption of artists livelihoods and the potential devastation to traditional ways of life – culture can also bring invaluable lessons to strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Both mitigation - reducing or preventing the impacts of climate change - and adaptation - adjusting to its now inevitable consequences - are the key pillars of global climate policy, working towards Goal 13 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda, as well as contributing to all 16 other goals. UNESCO, as the only UN agency with a mandate to span culture, the sciences and education, is uniquely positioned to respond to push the boundaries of culture’s transformational power.

91�鶹������Ʒ���� been stepping up its efforts. Building on its overall Strategy for Climate Action 2018-2021, 91�鶹������Ʒ���� recently set up a Reflection Group on Culture and Climate Change, which brings together experts from academia, international organizations and civil society to explore concrete ways to enhance the role of cultural and natural heritage, intangible cultural heritage and the creative economy, in tackling climate change. More broadly, the cultural sphere is also a space for dialogue, encompassing diverse worldviews and cultural values, so that societal change can radiate from our museums, cultural centres, cities, schools and traditional communities. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, the need for culture as a vital resource has never been greater.

Loading the dice: the climate change threat to culture

For several years, we have witnessed how climate change increasingly puts culture in peril. World Heritage sites - from the Cordilleras' Rice Terraces of the Philippines to the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador, from the Neolithic monuments of the Orkney Islands in UK to the Forest of the Cedars of God (Horsh Arz el-Rab) in Lebanon – are already significantly negatively affected by changing climatic conditions. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also reports in its recently published World Heritage Outlook 3 that climate change is the biggest threat to natural World Heritage properties, highlighting that a third of the 252 natural World Heritage sites are at risk. Changing weather patterns are also putting severe pressure on natural heritage. In 2018, fires destroyed more than 80,000 hectares of forest and grassland in the Mount Kenya National Park: almost half of the area of the UNESCO World Heritage site. Many marine World Heritage sites are tropical coral reefs whose exposure to bleaching events is increasing at such an alarming rate that experts warn that coral reefs are likely to disappear by 2100 unless CO2 emissions drastically reduce. Increased ocean temperature and acidification also pose a threat to marine biodiversity, as well as underwater cultural heritage sites.

Cultural World Heritage sites are also exposed to the threat, as many ancient buildings and sites were designed for a specific local climate. Around 130 sites, such as India’s Elephanta Caves, are at risk from rising sea levels, and changes in the Adriatic Sea have already damaged hundreds of buildings in Venice, Italy. Historic buildings and monuments are vulnerable to climate-related damage from extreme wind and rainfall whilst building foundations can be undermined and climate fluctuations inside buildings can cause mould, rot and insect infestations. Changes in temperature and water interactions are particularly important for earthen architecture, and many such sites – for example the Djenné mosque in Mali – are at risk from climate change. Furthermore, the conditions for conservation of archaeological evidence may be degraded due to increasing soil temperature. Overall, since 2010 the World Heritage Committee has examined at least 170 state of conservation reports for 41 World Heritage properties in 33 countries to monitor specifically the impact of climate change on their Outstanding Universal Value as part of the statutory reactive monitoring process.

Climate change is also disrupting socio-cultural aspects of our lives. Many communities around the world have been forced to change the way they live, work, worship and socialize, whether in small traditional villages or large mega-cities of over 20 million inhabitants. Least developed countries (LDC) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are among the most vulnerable and often most directly exposed to the consequences of climate change. The havoc wrought by cyclones and hurricanes in recent years in Caribbean and Pacific SIDS is particularly emblematic of extreme weather events that threaten the traditional way of life of communities. It is not just the traditional knowledge of these societies developed over centuries through interaction with their natural surroundings that is under threat. All aspects of their intangible cultural heritage – values, oral traditions, performing arts, social practices and festive events – are in jeopardy, and their disappearance would impoverish all of humanity, while at the same time, weakening communities’ ability to draw on their cultural resources to fight against climate change and adapt to its consequences. In extreme cases, whole communities may end up being forced to migrate abandoning their cultural heritage, both built and living.

 

There is also an economic cost of the impact of climate change on culture. For example, following the Tropical Cyclone that struck Vanuatu in 2015, the estimated costs required for the rehabilitation of the cultural sector was estimated at USD 1.4 million. This included the reconstruction of the libraries, arts centres, historical buildings and churches in Port Vila, as well as the Roi Mata’s Domain – a World Heritage site. Climate change also threatens the diversity of cultural expressions and the cultural and creative industries, with the loss of economic opportunities damaging the livelihoods of artists and cultural professionals. It is estimated that the costs of cancelling the 2017 Dominica World Creole Music Festival following a hurricane was USD 2.3 million. Many countries, including the SIDS, rely on cultural tourism to support their economies. Globally, coastal tourism is the largest component of the sector, which will be heavily affected by rising sea levels, coastal flooding, beach erosion and worsening storm surges. As noted in a UNESCO 2016 publication, published with the UN Environment Programme and Union of Concerned Scientists, , a 1-metre sea-level rise would be likely to inundate up to 60 per cent of the Caribbean region’s tourist resort properties.

In addition to the direct impact of climate change, cultural and natural heritage sites may also, paradoxically, be impacted by large sized infrastructure projects intended to foster ecological transition. Green energy infrastructure such as dams or wind power plants, in particular, can impact the authenticity or integrity of World Heritage sites, particularly cultural or natural landscapes, thus jeopardizing their Outstanding Universal Value. The current acceleration of public investment towards green infrastructure is likely to exacerbate these cases, requiring comprehensive approaches to tackle complex trad-off, involving competing priorities.

Culture: the untapped wellspring in mitigation efforts

Yet, culture is not a passive victim of the consequences of climate change: it is a huge untapped wellspring of potential in efforts to mitigate its impact and adapt in its wake. Natural World Heritage sites, for example, are ecosystems on land and at sea that act as “carbon sinks” to extract greenhouse emissions. UNESCO-designated sites, including UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, Global Geoparks and World Heritage properties, protect approximately 10 million square kilometres of cultural heritage and biodiversity around the world – the equivalent of the size of China. Many of the natural heritage sites, such as the Central Amazon Conservation Complex - the largest protected area in the Amazon Basin- serve this critical function. A 2014 International Union for Conservation of Nature study found that an estimated 5.7 billion tonnes of forest biomass carbon is stored within natural World Heritage sites in the pan-tropical regions of the world alone. Well-preserved forests and coastal habitats can help provide vital ecosystem services, including natural protection against storms and floods.

World Heritage sites can also act as learning laboratories for the study and mitigation of climate impacts, being places to test resilient management strategies. For example, in 2017, UNESCO published the first global scientific assessment of the impact of climate change on World Heritage coral reefs and the following year launched an initiative to establish an effective strategy for climate resilience in five coral reefs inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List: the Rock Islands Southern Lagoon (Palau), the Lagoons of New Caledonia (France), the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (Belize), the Ningaloo Coast, and the Great Barrier Reef (Australia). Cultural World Heritage sites, particularly World Heritage Cities, can also act as observatories of climate change and laboratories for climate adaptation, experimenting with sustainable, low carbon solutions to issues such as housing, transportation or urban conservation. Medinas for example, - dense, walkable, mixed-use settlements specific to Arab cities, such as the World Heritage city Fez in Morocco – can offer lessons for the environmental sustainability of cities. Likewise, local professional practices that use local techniques and materials for urban conservation and regeneration are also conducive to the ecological transition.

Whilst World Heritage Cities can bring vernacular wisdom to encourage the sustainable use of natural resources, cities are also at the forefront of innovation and creativity in the transition to more responsible production and consumption patterns. Cities account for and, to combat this trend, several of the 246 members of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network demonstrate how cities can adopt more sustainable practices or spark debate about climate change. For instance, the Creative City of Chengdu, China (Gastronomy) has worked to exchange coal with clean fuel in 4,000 of its local restaurants. In the United States of America, Austin (Media Arts) and Paducah (Crafts and Folk Art) are finding creative solutions to recycle and upcycle waste materials. In Australia, Melbourne (Literature) is using literature and writing as a tool to help communities gaining a better comprehension of the challenge of climate change and Seoul, Republic of Korea (Design), which is aiming to be a zero-waste city by 2030, opened the world’s largest cultural complex dedicated to upcycling in 2017.

Efforts are also being made by the creative sector to re-shape production processes and lessen its carbon footprint. Book printing has a significant impact on forests, whilst cinema and music festivals are often energy intensive, and artists’ increasing use of digital technologies results in high energy consumption, as well as electronic waste. The 2018 report laments that whilst awareness of environmental and sustainability issues has increased among Member States, this has not always translated into cultural policies that are more mindful of climate change. It does, however, cite as good examples Finland’s comprehensive Cultural Environmental Strategy and the Rocking the Daisies Music festival in South Africa, which achieved an 80% reduction in its carbon footprint through the use of biodiesel generators and eliminated harmful grey water and recycling trash.

Future-proofing: culture for adaptation

The effects of climate change are already being felt around the world and culture provides answers to adapt to this new reality. Living heritage, in the form of local and indigenous knowledge, is a particularly vital source of resilience, through traditional food security strategies or water and land management techniques. For example, the Kalasha people of the Hindu Kush mountain ranges of Pakistan use an ancestral meteorological and astronomical knowledge system called “Suri Jagek”, to help predict weather patterns, plan their harvests and raise livestock. This practice, inscribed on the , and other such practices can help communities to respond collectively to these increasingly volatile weather patterns and ensure the continuity of their way of life. Similarly, following Tropical Cyclone Pam that devastated the Pacific Island of Vanuatu in 2015, it was discovered that the traditional nakamal buildings built with modern materials and techniques suffered greater damage than nakamals built using local materials and traditional building skills. This traditional know-how can guide local planning to make communities more resilient.

The Paris Agreement recognises that climate action must “be based on and guided by […] traditional knowledge, knowledge of indigenous peoples and local knowledge systems”. It was precisely in this vein that the was set up as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process to enhance capacity building and knowledge sharing. also advocates for the inclusion of local and indigenous knowledge in climate science and policy processes from the local level to the global level. LINKS has been influential in ensuring that local and indigenous knowledge holders and their knowledge are included in contemporary science-policy-society fora on issues such as biodiversity, climate change, natural disaster preparedness and sustainable development. Enhancing the linkages between scientific and technical knowledge and local knowledge systems multiplies the possibilities of finding robust solutions to the climate crisis. The roll-out of the will also provide evidence base, particularly through the indicator on “Climate Adaptation and Resilience”, intended to assess at the national or local level measures undertaken to foster climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Given the vital role of diverse knowledge systems, UNESCO continually alerts on the erosion of cultural diversity, intrinsically linked to biodiversity – whose degradation is accelerated by climate change. The clearly emphasises the link between culture and nature, highlighting that “cultural diversity is as necessary to humankind as biodiversity is to nature.” Languages are particularly important and an estimated 5000 of the world’s 7000 languages are indigenous languages, many of which appear on the . It is estimated that . When a language vanishes, it represents the loss of a whole worldview and an entire system of knowledge, practices and know-how.

The culture sector itself needs to adapt and UNESCO is also stepping up its support for culture climate change resilience though capacity-building. In May 2014, UNESCO published a practical guide to for site managers to support more sustainable practices and adaptation strategies. UNESCO also directly lends support to communities to safeguard their living heritage, such as through the international assistance provided to the pastoralist Samburu community in northern Kenya, which is under stress due to the rapidly changing environment of the Biosphere Reserve where they live. In 2018, UNESCO launched an ambitious, transversal project in the Lake Chad Basin - in partnership with the Lake Chad Basin Commission and the African Development Bank - which aims to safeguard and enhance natural and cultural resources in order to reduce poverty and promote peace. Decreases in rainfall dwindled Lake Chad water levels and the local region has been plagued by conflict and insecurity. One of the project objectives is to support the bordering countries of Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Niger and Nigeria in preparing the dossier to nominate the lake as a World Heritage site, which involves updating and improving knowledge of Lake Chad's natural resources, and building capacity for the management and protection of these resources.

Developing disaster risk reduction strategies for cultural heritage and supporting culture in emergencies is also increasingly predominant in UNESCO’s work. UNESCO strongly engages with the and has contributed to the 2010 publication on . The UNESCO Culture Conventions in relation to World Heritage and intangible cultural heritage are also reinforcing mechanisms to ensure that management strategies are adequate. At regional level, particularly in the Caribbean and Pacific, UNESCO field offices are highly engaged with disaster planning efforts, showing a significant recognition of the importance of culture for communities in times of crisis. When disasters do occur – such as earthquakes, fires and extreme weather events - 91�鶹������Ʒ���� the capacity to work closely with the UN Country Teams to carry out for culture to assess damage and address needs. This methodology has been deployed, for example, to assess damage in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Gita that struck the Kingdom of Tonga in 2018 causing damage to several historical buildings and cultural heritage sites, including those on the Tentative List for World Heritage and was funded by the UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund.

Behavioural change: culture as a compass

Tackling climate change is fundamentally an ethical issue. Responses to climate change that do not take ethics into account have the potential to devastate entire communities, create new paradigms of inequality and uneven distribution, and render more vulnerable those who have already found themselves uprooted by climate change related disasters and conflicts. Climate change necessitates a values-based approach, one that is rooted in equity, justice and solidarity. In 2017, UNESCO Member States adopted a global and continues to advocate for a values-based approach, under the slogan “Changing Minds Not the Climate”. Education is key, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG target 4.7) explicitly mention equipping learners with the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including culture’s contribution. UNESCO’s Programme focuses on sustainable development issues, such as climate change and biodiversity by encouraging responsible actors who resolve challenges, respect cultural diversity and contribute to creating a more sustainable world.

Museums, cultural institutions and heritage site interpretation centres can be key actors for raising awareness and promoting dialogue around climate action. They can particularly illustrate the ways in which past human experiences of climate change can inform our responses to climate change today, including underwater archaeological sites of past civilizations that have already succumbed to previous, natural climatic changes. By being examples of climate change impact and possible response, World Heritage sites can stimulate awareness-raising more broadly. For instance, the World Heritage site of Greenland’s Ilulissat Icefjord (Denmark), is one of the fastest-melting and most impressive glaciers in the world and is a place where visitors can see spectacular landscapes at the front-line of global climate change.

Artists play a particularly important role in raising awareness, whether by photographers documenting the wonders of the natural world, films about climate change or youth theatre initiatives to engage young people. The Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust, for instance, has been working on a collaborative arts and environmental sustainability programme since 2012 to raise awareness of products and productions that showcase how arts and culture can tackle environmental issues. Culture also helps people shape the narrative around climate change as a key tool for storytelling and can be a means of helping communities cope with anxiety or loss of one’s culture in relation to climate change.

Charting the way forward

Despite the unique position of culture to bolster mitigation, adaption and behavioural change efforts in the fight against climate change, it has so far been underestimated and under-utilized. Culture is not systematically integrated into the (1992) nor the (2015), the two main instruments guiding international policy-making. One of the main, urgent tasks of UNESCO’s new Reflection Group on Culture and Climate Change and the recently launched initiative on Cultural Heritage and Climate Change is to work with the International Council on Museums and Sites (ICOMOS) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to ensure the integration of culture into the global climate agenda, including Assessment Reports and Special Reports of the IPCC, the UN body tasked with assessing the science related to climate change. A lack of data, research and peer-reviewed publications on the linkages between culture and climate change remain a significant barrier, requiring significant investment in human resources and research. Developing this body of research would, furthermore, help countries integrate culture - particularly the role of natural heritage sites as sinks for greenhouse gas emissions - into their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement, which are legally-binding country action plans for meeting climate change targets. Integrating culture into regional strategies, policy papers or dialogue mechanisms will also reinforce climate action.

Culture-based approaches can help shift the focus of climate negotiations from competing interests to shared values and the common good and UNESCO is increasingly vocal on the international stage in promoting culture for climate action. In 2019, during the PreCOP meeting – a worldwide public consultation for governments and civil society organizations to exchange – UNESCO organised two discussions on the role of culture for climate action and for sustainable cities, the first time that culture was integrated into the PreCOP process. UNESCO also participated in the COP25 in an event organized by Greece at the European Union Pavilion on Climate Change Impacts on Cultural and Natural Heritage; the Day After, alongside the World Meteorological Organization, the United National Social Development Network and ICOMOS. In 2021, culture will be included in the COP26 meeting, as well as the upcoming G20 hosted by Italy where heritage and climate change will be in the spotlight. Furthermore, following the request of the UN Secretary General for UNESCO to take a greater lead in addressing culture and climate change, UNESCO is seeking to establish a Follow-up Committee with the support of UNFCCC and Greece to continue outreach and collaboration towards designing, developing and implementing plans and programmes to help mitigate the effects of climate change on cultural and natural heritage. At the same time, Greece is set to launch a new initiative, endorsed by UNESCO, Addressing Climate Change Impact on Cultural and Natural Heritage that will serve as a flexible mechanism for knowledge exchange between academia, policymakers, institutional partners and the civil society at all levels, which will report to this Committee.

Culture is the bridge between global ambitions and locally-adapted solutions, at the regional, national and community level. At a national level, strengthening the synergies between culture and other policy areas will be essential for more comprehensive and effective policy action. Given the fundamentally ethical nature of the climate change issue, culture can enhance human-centred and environmentally sustainable models of society that respect the intrinsic linkages between cultural and biological diversity. Bringing culture into environmental policies, for example, can incorporate communities’ practices to construct tailormade solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Climate change is reshaping the entire policy landscape. As such, culture can also propose solutions for diverse policy areas related to, for example, urban planning, food security, poverty reduction and new modes of responsible consumption and production, including for tourism. UNESCO in particular advocates for the inclusion of culture in education systems, not only to nurture the knowledge, attitudes values and behaviours to empower a new generation of global citizens in the face of climate change, but also to spark the creativity and innovation needed for an uncertain future. Supporting youth leadership on climate change through culture-based education resonates and is an important catalyst for citizen engagement.

Finally, cultural polices themselves should also be reviewed and adapted to accelerate their contribution to climate action. Currently, they rarely systematically address the issue of climate change - despite the fact that its consequences are already affecting cultural and natural heritage, living heritage and the creative sector - even if there are several examples of Caribbean and Pacific SIDS incorporating issues related to climate and resilience. There is potential to reduce the carbon footprint of the cultural and creative industries, World Heritage site managers have a role to play in ensuring their sites are sustainably managed and stakeholders in the tourism sector can take steps to ensure that culture can be enjoyed in greater harmony with the natural environment, as well as local communities.

As such, UNESCO continues to strengthen its policy advice, providing conceptual and operational tools on culture and climate change, particularly through its Culture Conventions. It is currently in the process of updating its 2007 to make it more action-oriented and provide concrete guidance for Member States. Furthermore, through its network of field offices, it is also supporting countries to integrate climate resilience into national cultural policies.

Climate action is a complex issue and culture plays a fundamental role in the mitigation, adaption and behavioural change strategies. It also serves to root the global climate debate in shared values. UNESCO is already leading the way to ensure that the full contribution of the cultural dimension is increasingly brought to bear but it will take the political will and concerted efforts of Member States, civil society organizations, World Heritage site managers, cultural industry professionals, indigenous community leaders, museum directors, artists, educators, youth activists and global citizens around the world to realise its full potential, and so pass on the guardianship of our fragile blue and green planet to future generations.