Following the IHBC’s support for the highly successful Edinburgh launch of the Climate Heritage Network – the Institute has re-affirmed its commitment to the Network and its objectives, while noting also the newly-published Action Plan, the Madrid-to-Glasgow Arts, Culture and Heritage Climate Action Plan.
image: HES
IHBC Chair David McDonald said: ‘We are delighted that the IHBC’s Board – advised by our Policy Committee and its two lead panels, on ‘Technical’ and ‘Green’ issues – has reaffirmed its commitment to advancing the Network. It will deliver on this commitment by supporting the delivery of the Network’s recently launched Action Plan.’
‘The IHBC is been keen to build on the sector leadership demonstrated in our support for the Network’s recent launch in Edinburgh. That included hosting a stand there, and a presentation by our Technical Panel lead, John Edwards, on the updated Guidance Note from the IHBC’s ToolBox on the Retrofitting of Traditional Buildings. We can now follow that up with a commitment to contributing proactively to the Network’s Action Plan.’
IHBC Policy Secretary Roy Lewis said: ‘The IHBC is fully committed to engaging closely with the Climate Heritage Network and the delivery of its Action Plan. The Policy Committee is especially keen to target specific priority issues that we identified there, including around managing cultural and heritage values through planning.’
‘The Committee will look in particular to the advice of the Committee’s ‘Green’ and ‘Technical’ panels – ably led by Crispin Edwards and John Edwards respectively – to advise in detail on how we can best assist in delivering the Action Plan’s agreed outcomes, once the panels have had the opportunity to review the arrangements.’
CNH writes:
MADRID, Spain, 5 Dec – 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…..
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. Entities may join at http://climateheritage.org/join/.
For more background see the NewsBlog and for more background and links on climate search the IHBC NewsBlogs
If you would like to learn more about the CHN, access the website
See the updated IHBC ToolBox Guidance Note on Retrofitting of Traditional Buildings
See more Guidance Notes
See the IHBC’s ToolBox
To keep in touch with developments in the IHBC’s 2022 Wales Branch-hosted Annual School, which will explore technical aspects of conservation, follow #IHBCSwansea2022 for updates as soon as they become available.
