From November 6-18, the world’s focus will be on the Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh where the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt is hosting the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – also known as COP27.
This conference comes at a crucial point in humanity’s quest for transformative climate action consistent with the 2015 Paris Agreement and the latest climate science. It also comes at a pivotal moment for Culture. COPs are one of the most important venues for climate policy making, but there has always been a culture-sized hole in their agendas. Last year at COP26 in Glasgow, culture made strides in filling this gap. Sharm el-Sheikh presents an important opportunity to build on that work.
Climate Heritage Network members and partners have been working for almost a year on strategies to amplify arts, culture and heritage voices in and around COP27 — in Sharm el-Sheikh, across Egypt and the rest of the African continent, around the world, and online. Leadership has come from the CHN’s Culture at COP27 Working Group.
The Working Group’s aims are to:
• Mainstream art, culture, and heritage perspectives into climate change policymaking.
• Support climate action by cultural voices at all levels and in turn drive engagement by wider audiences and the public.
• Build capacity within cultural actors for durable, ambitious climate action year-round.
• Grow the Climate Heritage Network in order to develop more effective international culture-climate collaboration at COP28 in Abu Dhabi and beyond.
Current climate planning and policy is dangerously off course. Attention to the cultural dimensions of the climate crisis and the socio-cultural enabling conditions of transformative climate action is the corrective the world urgently needs. COP27 is an important venue to help make that happen – especially when diverse cultural actors lend their unique voices.
To learn more and check out the events about the initiative, please visit the website of the Climate Heritage Network.