Our Co-Sponsors

Culture and heritage connect the present to centuries and millennia of human experience.

Currently, climate change represents one of the greatest threats to culture and heritage, from the physical damage of increasing temperatures, fires, floods, and droughts to the stresses these forces place on practice and transmission of lifeways and ways of knowing.  

At the same time, culture and heritage are essential resources for climate change science, adaptation, and mitigation – from  traditional land and water management practices and architecture to physical and psychological refuges for communities during and after climate-related emergencies. Together culture and heritage are sources of creativity for solutions to climate challenges.

On these bases, the International Co-Sponsored Meeting on Culture, Heritage, and Climate Change (ICSM CHC) is being prepared to:

• take stock of the state of knowledge regarding connections of culture and heritage with anthropogenic climate change;
• establish a baseline of reference regarding the nature, depth of, and gaps in knowledge regarding these connections;
• build new conversations and collaborations between the broad fields of culture, heritage, and climate change that will support future research and action in climate science, adaptation, and mitigation.

The ICSM CHC will bring together 100 researchers and practitioners from around the world in a virtual Meeting during the week of 6 December 2021. The report of the ICSM CHC will be provided to the IPCC and may serve as a resource in the scoping of the products for the IPCC seventh assessment cycle in 2022.