Historic England (HE) has published its Heritage and Climate Change Strategy alongside its Carbon Reduction Plan, setting out how it will decarbonise its own operations by 2040, while also seeking feedback.
… Historic England supports urgent climate action and believes that heritage is part of the solution…
Hannah Fluck of HE writes:
In setting out our own approach, we are acutely aware of the brilliant work which is already underway across the sector to address the climate crisis. Historic England does not have all the answers. We’re keen to learn from you and work together to share best practice so we can tackle this existential challenge together, and to take soundings about what you need – and what you don’t need – from us.
The climate change crisis threatens people, places and the heritage we all love. Historic England supports urgent climate action and believes that heritage is part of the solution. This goes to the very heart of our purpose: to champion and protect the historic environment because we recognise the power of heritage to improve lives.
Our strategic vision is:
By 2040, our heritage will have played an important role in the global fight to limit climate change and its impact on people and places. We will have enabled people to live more sustainably and adapt to a changing climate, while conserving our irreplaceable heritage for future generations.
We have been studying and raising awareness of the impact of climate change and working towards reducing our carbon emissions for decades. Recognising the critical importance of a strategic and coordinated response to the climate crisis, our strategy sets out how we will:
- Mitigate – achieve Net Zero for Historic England. We have made a commitment to reach Net Zero by 2040 and our Carbon Reduction Plan sets out how we will get there. We want to learn from this and good practice from across the sector to support work to reduce carbon emissions associated with heritage
- Manage Risks – listen, learn and share understanding with partners to respond to the threats of climate change
- Adapt – our historic environment can also help people and places to adapt by contributing to their resilience
I would be delighted to hear your views on our plans and what you’d like to see from us as we meet this challenge together.
For background see HE website
