Call to Action
Culture at the Heart of Climate Action
A global call to the UNFCCC to include cultural heritage, the arts and creative sectors in climate policy
Representatives of Cultural Voices at COP28 gathered just before the Ministerial meeting
Artists and cultural voices from across the world are uniting to call for climate negotiators at COP UN Climate Conference to put cultural heritage, arts and creative industries at the heart of climate action.
We are asking for a ground-breaking ‘Joint Work Decision on Culture and Climate Action’, a UN process which would trigger policies and frameworks to enable culture to contribute fully to climate solutions.
Culture is a powerful force that shapes all of our lives, wherever we are in the world. Yet in spite of its potential, culture has not been integrated into climate policy and planning. Culture-led solutions that are inclusive, local as well as global, and focused on people and nature are already abundant.
Cultural heritage, including traditional knowledge, strengthens resilience, helps communities to adapt to climate impacts, protects places, and offers green, circular and regenerative solutions. The arts speak to hearts and minds, inspiring action and helping us to understand climate change through storytelling and shared experiences. The creative industries - design, music, fashion and film - shape our lifestyles, tastes and consumption patterns.
To strengthen global climate action, we must urgently harness the extraordinary potential of cultural heritage, arts and creative sectors to help people imagine and realise low-carbon, just, climate resilient futures.
If you recognise culture as an indispensable pillar of climate action, sign up to support the campaign, and share it with your networks and communities.
Group of Friends of Culture-Based Climate Action
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Brazil have announced the launch of the Group of Friends of Culture-Based Climate Action at the UNFCCC. The Group of Friends is an international coalition of UN Member States aimed at building political momentum for the recognition of culture as a uniquely powerful force in climate change policy.
Cultural voices that support Global Call to Action welcome this political commitment, and have issued statements of support.
Why a Joint Work Decision?
A Joint Work Decision would launch a process to:
Understand how culture - heritage, arts and creative sectors - is already supporting climate actions and solutions
Support cultural voices to influence audiences and consumers
Unite the entire culture sector globally to scale up action on the most pressing issue of our time
Influence key policies and discussions on adapting to our changing climate, decarbonising, supporting cultural knowledge keepers, safeguarding heritage and culture, and innovating with our creativity
What is the timeline?
The timeline, contingent on meeting our goals is:
At COP 28 in Dubai: High Level Ministerial Dialogue on Culture-based Climate Action and launch of the Group of Friends of Culture-based Climate Action
At COP 29 in Baku: we hope to build support for the JWD
At COP 30 in Belem: we hope to get approval of the JWD to trigger consultation with culture bodies on culture and climate over the following year
At COP 31: we hope for the launch of the recommendations to the UNFCCC for culture-based climate action.
This campaign is part of an initiative funded by the UAE Ministry of Culture in partnership with the ALIPH Foundation.
Read the full Call to Action in more detail below.
Read the full Call to Action
Founding Signatories
All Signatories
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Watch: the Launch of the Group of Friends of Culture-based Climate Action live stream is available to watch online.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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We are asking the national governments that are parties to the UN Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement to adopt a ‘Joint Work on Culture and Climate Action’ decision (JWD) at the UN Climate Change Conference known as the Conference of the Parties or “COP.”
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The Joint Work Decision (JWD) is a request from the national governments that govern the UNFCCC to address issues related to culture including arts and heritage in climate policy.
It is is a recognised process that national governments meeting at a COP can follow.
They would conduct workshops and expert meetings, working with constituted bodies under the UNFCCC as well as other interested organisations in order to make recommendations for consideration and adoption.
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A Joint Work Decision (JWD) can result in new platforms that provide a permanent role for a topic or sector — like culture — in climate talks and in the work of the UN climate agency (the UNFCCC).
The initial JWD that we are seeking directs the UNFCCC and its Subsidiary Bodies to jointly commence a one-year consultative process to address issues related to arts, culture, and heritage through workshops and expert meetings. These would take into consideration the vulnerabilities of cultural heritage to climate change and approaches to culture and heritage as a driver of climate action.
The goal of this process would be to make recommendations for consideration and adoption at future COPs. Ideally, this would be a comprehensive work plan by the UNFCCC on engaging with the cultural dimensions of transformative climate action.
Engagement by Non-State Actors in such a consultative process will be crucial. We expect that this process would include a call for submissions to the UNFCCC of ideas on the intersections of culture and climate action as well as opportunities to intervene as scientific meetings that would be convened to discuss these issues.
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Topics that might be discussed as part of the consultation include:
• The power of culture, including artistic practice, creativity, heritage, and traditional knowledge systems, to help people imagine and realise sustainable consumption and production patterns, and a low-carbon, climate resilient future
• Culture and heritage practices as contemporary climate technology and its role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• The culture and heritage dimensions of enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change and the consequences of the impacts of climate hazards on culture and heritage on the resilience of people and communities
• Synergies and tradeoffs between the safeguarding of cultural heritage and transformative climate action
• Role of culture and heritage in avoiding maladaptation and mal-mitigation
• Socioeconomic and cultural dimensions of climate resilient sustainable development.
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Culture is critical in finding solutions to the climate crisis. It plays a powerful role in our lives. It can inspire change, shift hearts and minds, and imagine and create new ways of living. Adopting this JWD will play a crucial role in the implementation of change in societies by recognising that culture, heritage and arts are integral to human life, expression, beliefs and behaviour and therefore integral to embracing the changes needed to create a better future.
To date, engagement with the cultural dimensions of climate action has been led in many places by civil society and other non-state actors. The JWD would not change that. Rather, the idea is that mainstreaming art, culture, and heritage perspectives into international climate change policy would support local cultural-based climate action by helping to deliver policy and funding frameworks that valorise this work. All of this would in turn help improve the efficacy of climate planning and action.
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Julie’s Bicycle is heading up this campaign under the leadership of the Climate Heritage Network, and with support from Europa Nostra.
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COP is short for Conference of the Parties. It is an international climate meeting held each year by the United Nations.
The countries involved are committed to taking actions outlined in an international treaty called the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
COP 28 takes place this December 2023 in Dubai, U.A.E.
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In November 2022, COP 27 delivered exciting news and a historical win for the creative climate movement. For the first time ever, national governments included cultural heritage in statements on both ‘loss and damage’ and ‘adaptation’.
The Climate Heritage Network (CHN) and partners delivered a significant achievement, ensuring that culture is recognised as an asset to be protected from climate impacts and a resource to strengthen communities’ transformative change.
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This campaign is for everyone who cares about empowering cultural voices, actors and sectors in the fight against climate change.
Everyone in cultural, heritage, arts and entertainment, sector, including artists and creatives, cultural institutions, units of government at all levels, SMEs and design firms, organisations, universities and educational institutions, Indigenous Peoples’ organisations, and individuals. It also includes environment and climate activists who recognise that addressing the cultural dimensions of the climate crisis are critical to getting the world back on track to meeting Paris Agreement targets.
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We will not share the email address you provided with third parties. We will add your email address to a very low volume mailing list which we will use to update you on the campaign.
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Share this campaign with your networks and communities!
• Share the campaign’s message with diverse individuals and organisations that have the ability to pass the message to national governments, who will take the final decision on the JWD.
• Encourage those you’ve shared the campaign with to begin thinking about the contributions they would like to make to a global, UN-level consultative process.
Part of the remit of the JWD process aims to understand the full contribution of culture to climate action. it will look at where and how culture-led climate solutions are already in place, and by whom; and make recommendations for incorporating arts, culture and heritage-based strategies into future climate UNFCCC policy and work plans.
Everyone’s creativity will be needed to share with the UNFCCC visions for how to unlock the power of culture to help people imagine and realise low carbon, just, climate resilient futures.
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We are encouraged to see the ideas embodied in the Call to Action being championed by the host country of COP28, the United Arab Emirates, and by the COP28 Presidency.
Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, President Delegate for CO28 UAE, and H.E. Salem bin Khalid Al Qassami, Minister of Culture and Youth, UAE have now jointly issued an invitation to a High Level Ministerial Dialogue on Culture-based Climate Action to be held at COP28 on 8 December which will see the launch of the new Group of Friends of Culture-Based Climate Action at the UNFCCC. The Group of Friends is to be an informal coalition of UNFCCC member states focused on strengthening political momentum for an effective, coherent, and coordinated action to support and advocate for culture and heritage-based climate action as well as for the protection of culture and heritage from climate impacts. The initial focus of the Group of Friends will be to advocate for the inclusion of the JWD on the COP agenda, and subsequently, for its adoption.
The COP28 Presidency is arranging a high-level meeting (planned for 8 December 2023 at the COP) where ideas like the JWD can be discussed. The JWD idea also builds on the Kashi Cultural Pathway adopted in August at the G20 Culture Ministers’ meeting in India which noted ‘growing culture-related concerns raised in the context of the UN Climate Action Summit and the COP, by…building on the opportunities of culture-related practices and knowledge systems, including local and indigenous knowledge and practices, to inform adaptation and mitigation strategies and plans as well as solutions for climate action’
We welcome this strengthened political momentum for advocacy and action by national governments.
