Framework for climate action in cultural &

heritage organisations
1 Overview and principles

This framework aims to help cultural and heritage organisations think about how to:
• manage the risks of climate change for their own future
• make a contribution to tackle ‘global climatic disruption’1
• deal with other aspects of environmental damage, which might contribute to the
cause or be an effect of climate change.

The author is Bridget McKenzie, Director of Flow Associates, but it is intended as a

collaborative co-owned framework. It is posted in Digress.it so that you can comment
and help develop it. Please suggest links to add to the resources section and flesh out
information where you think it’s missing. Practice from outside the UK would be very
interesting.

It may be most useful for museums, galleries, archives, libraries and heritage bodies
but it contains much of relevance to related sectors2.

The framework consists of:

• Ten principles to underpin the framework

• Three dimensions of action for:

○ All organisations
○ All public organisations
○ All cultural & heritage organisations

• Two dimensions of planning for risk:

○ Global
○ Local

2 Ten principles

To underpin the framework, organisations will need to adopt some or all of these
principles, adapting and expanding them as relevant to their situation.

1. However local our remit, we accept a global responsibility and perspective.

2. The survival of our own organisation as it is, is only important so that we can
contribute to wider social and global challenges.

3. Sustainability is not about the survival of every initiative but the evolution of our
services to meet environmental, cultural and educational needs as they change.

4. It is essential that we collaborate with other bodies to share knowledge and

resources.

1 Used by John Holdren, President Obama’s advisor on environmental policy, as a replacement for the term climate
change. It conveys more accurately the unpredictable, dangerous and global nature of the situation.
2 The framework is conceived for the UK, especially England where culture is governed by Department for Culture,
Media & Sport whose ‘family’ also includes media & broadcast, sport, tourism & the creative industries.
 5. We need to make our assets even more accessible to aid urgent and pragmatic
learning from them. This may involve increasing digital access to our culture and
knowledge.

6. We should not delay in reducing greenhouse gas emissions across our

operations, as this is only a first step.

7. We must model and enable imaginative thinking and practice, working

optimistically and generously with creative people and ideas.

8. We must aim to think systemically to deal with the complexity of the situation, so
that we can continually reassess our priorities.

9. We should prioritise community engagement, working more closely with

agencies involved in natural environment, place-making, engineering and
sustainable economics. We should redefine our audiences as communities of
interest, groups of people who need to learn and solve problems.

10. We should drive towards contextualisation, so that artefacts and knowledge are
more dynamically placed into an ecosystem of landscape, biodiversity and
human economics and creativity.

3 Three dimensions of action

3.1Mitigation and adaptation
Both of these, in balance, are priorities for all organisations of any kind.

Mitigation by:
• Reducing the risk of climate disruption worsening
• Reducing emissions
• Protecting wilderness (that held in stewardship or by indirect support)
• By supporting green design

Adaptation by:
• Forward-thinking planning for the risks of climate disruption
• Protecting and strengthening assets
• Moving assets or not developing them in risk areas
• Developing sustainable infrastructure
• Helping communities deal with change and loss

3.2 Infrastructure and Mission

Public service broadcasters, arts agencies, science or design bodies, should consider
how to Mitigate and Adapt to climate change through both their Infrastructure and their
Public Mission.

Infrastructure:
• Balance of both mitigation & adaption
• With buildings, landscapes, administrative practices, travel, technology
• Not forgetting hidden infrastructure such as ethical finance
Public Mission:
• Support and encourage mitigation & adaptation actions by the wider public
• Learning from the past to develop new solutions

3.3 Preventing and Recording Loss

All in the cultural and heritage sectors have missions to sustain cultural activity, to
preserve heritage in perpetuity and to help people cope with change and prepare for
challenge.

Preventing and reducing loss (a specific aspect of mitigation):

• Researching and raising awareness of threats to culture & knowledge due to
extreme events, ecosystem destruction and the dispersal of cultural groups
• Moving assets to protect them, placing them in new contexts

Recording and restoring what is lost (a specific aspect of adaptation):

• Community co-curation and research to recover knowledge
• Restoration of natural and cultural heritage
• Helping communities deal with loss

4 Opportunities and risks

4.1 Global risk

The effects of climate disruption on a single country must be understood in a global

context. For example, the UK’s economy is reliant on other countries for its food supply
and industrial production. Also, loss of liveable land worldwide will place much greater
pressures on the UK from migration, aid responsibilities and an increased threat of
terrorism and war. These factors, resulting in a severe economic downturn and food
shortage, will significantly outweigh the risks of extreme local weather or tidal events
for the UK culture & heritage sectors. Culture and heritage will not be seen as a priority
in these circumstances although there is much evidence from the past that
communities which maintain strong cultural participation are more resilient and
creative in crises. The most positive approach is to demonstrate the value of cultural
heritage in tackling this crisis rather than seeking to preserve our notions and practices
which have evolved in a context of affluence and leisure.

This chart lists the climate change risks identified by the 4th Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change in 2007 and it suggests some contributions the sector can make to
mitigate or adapt to them. It may be helpful to identify these actions as opportunities.

Note that the 4th Panel was based on science conducted up to 2005. Models since then,
for example by MIT in 2009, identify greater risks as ice at both poles is melting much
faster than predicted. The IPCC 2007 report did not account for polar melting or the
release of methane from frozen tundra, but focused on glacier melting and thermal
expansion of the oceans.

IPPC’s risks posed Cultural & heritage organisations can aid work to:
by climate change
Danger to up to 118 • Explore the experience of people in places such as Bangladesh or
million people Egypt, to understand the impact of severe flooding.
losing their • Describe and promote engineering & ecosystem solutions e.g. the
communities to the Delta Project to enable people to learn and adapt them.
sea (and new
• Record and interpret the threatened heritage of coastal, estuary/
models suggest the
flood-plain landscapes and peoples, so that a) we raise awareness
risk is faced by 600
of its value to help tackle rising sea levels b) preserve knowledge &
million)
rescue/move heritage artefacts.
• Help these communities face the threat to their homes and
livelihoods by a) using cultural & creative means to help them
understand the science/engineering behind coastal defence &
climate change mitigation so that they can be active citizens and
b) so that they are psychologically prepared to deal with change,
loss and possible need to move home & business.
• Contribute to imaginative coastal defence and coastal living
schemes, accessing science & cultural heritage knowledge &
contemporary art/design thinking
• When planning new coastal/estuary cultural developments, build
coastal defence into architectural & landscaping plans if the area is
protected enough from erosion/flood to be a sustainable proposal

Risk of famine due • Help communities learn about resilient and sustainable crops and
to the threatening about new approaches to food production such as permaculture.
of crops through • Contribute to seed and plant heritage projects.
aridity, flood,
• Develop the skills and capacities in communities to grow their own
altered growth
food in gardens and allotments.
cycles and pests
[Note, this is • Reduce food waste and help people cope with food rationing by
combined with loss of raising awareness of good nutrition, storage and cooking practices.
biodiversity caused by • Expose the connections between biodiversity/ecosystem
factors other than destruction and climate change.
climate change]

A large increase in • Explore the experiences of people where such diseases are more
the range of common and threatening.
diseases such as • Design creative ways of resisting insect-borne diseases.
malaria

Ecosystem changes, • Help people understand interdependencies in ecosystems.

in particular a • Help people grasp the fragility of ecosystems by exploring how
growth of deserts they have changed and collapsed in the past.
and a reduction of
• Learn about the experience of people living in or escaping from
forests.
deserts, especially recent deserts such as in China.
[Note, this destruction
• Raise awareness of the vital contribution of forests and
is both directly
phytoplankton in ‘sinking’ carbon.
human-caused e.g.
logging & plastic • Take part in schemes to reduce the destruction of forests and plant
pollution of seas & a new ones, and marine conservation etc.
consequence of • Take part in schemes to record lost and changing landscapes and
climate change e.g. species.
forest fires, hurricane
damage]
More crowded living • Encourage debate about population growth.
spaces • Learn from the past ways to design new solutions for living more
[Note, due to loss of densely in cities.
liveable human
habitats > migration] • Work with rural communities to adapt to influx of new
developments and different people.
• Explore ways of sharing rather than defending private and ‘tribal’
space.

More coexistence of • Learn about and invent ways that diverse cultures have
cultures and exchanged and lived harmoniously together.
languages in • Support work to record artefacts, knowledge and language as they
habitable areas are lost, fragmented or adapted into new communities.
• Ensure that museums/cultural centres can adapt collections &
programmes to increasing cultural diversity.

A more nomadic • Develop aptitudes of flexibility, tolerance of others and practical

lifestyle for many of living skills.
us • Make cultural resources available digitally and support digital
inclusion initiatives so that content can be accessed by anyone
anywhere.
More competition • Develop ‘positive deviancy’, or ‘imaginative resourcefulness’ - to
for food and goods thrive with less.
• Encourage collaborative approaches for sharing food and goods.

A greater gap • Use cultural resources to explore alternative economic systems.

between rich and • Use material culture from the past to understand the negative
poor effects of excessive materialism.
• Use cultural heritage organisations as a base for philanthropy and
social exchange schemes, to help narrow the gap.

A shorter life • Understand, and take responsibility for personal health.

expectancy • See above on contributing to solutions to increased diseases &
food shortages.

A shift of public • Find ways to help people make their own culture and enjoyment.
resources away • Explore ways that public cultural resources can be used more
from inessentials efficiently, can share & reuse infrastructure, reduce new buildings
& new initiatives that become money drains
• Explore how green infrastructure can save money.

Fundamental • Work with cultural & creative mediators to help people avoid fixing
conflicts between into extreme positions of either indulgence or repression of liberal
those who respond values.
with decadence and • Promote an approach to education and problem-solving that is
those with based on dialogue, enquiry and pragmatism.
authoritarian moral
• Provide spaces for people from diverse backgrounds to share views
stances
on ethics in a changing situation.
Greatly increased • Sensitively explore the experiences and outcomes of nuclear and
threats of nuclear terrorist attacks.
war and terrorism. • Use cultural diplomacy and other initiatives to promote
international peace.
4.2 Local risks

The risks to the UK have been identified and visualised by the UK Climate Projections
team in DEFRA.

Most of these projections are based on a medium emissions scenario, which is by no

means the worst case scenario but is worse than the World Stabilisation Scenario
required to put climate disruption into slow reverse.

These effects include:

• Warmer summers (mean 4.5 degrees C warmer by the 2080s)
• Greater risk of flash floods.
• Sea level rises, especially affecting Southern England

Apart from the global risks identified above, it is likely that the main risk to UK culture
and heritage is related to water, including too little of it:
• Subsidence from drought causing damage to buildings and infrastructure
• Fires in forests and on heathland affecting biodiversity and cultural heritage in
landscape

...and too much of it:

• Coastal erosion from increased wave height and more severe storms
• Tidal flooding
• Fluvial flooding
• Flash floods from heavy rainfall on dry ground.

The UKCP09 maps show how many thousands of listed buildings and heritage
attractions are located in flood risk areas. Apart from the suggestions on how to tackle
to the global scenario, organisations in the UK need to address these risks by:

• Working closely with the Environment Agency, regional panels on climate

adaption and local authorities on reducing risks to infrastructure
• Using cultural heritage to raise awareness of its value to the public and
biodiversity, to encourage mitigation and adaptation investment in communities
at risk
• Take efforts seriously to reduce emissions and adapt buildings to reduce your
vulnerability from extreme events.

5 Resources

http://ukcp09.defra.gov.uk/content/view/6/6
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/publications/lc_trans_plan/lc_trans_plan.aspx
http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/DCMS_SDActionPlan_07.pdf
http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/publications/6003.aspx/
http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/199.htm
http://globalfloodmap.org/
http://www.greenermuseums.org/
http://ecoch.wordpress.com
http://www.rsaartsandecology.org.uk/home
http://australianmuseum.net.au/Climate-Change/
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/climatechange/
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-chl/w-countryside_environment/w-
climate_change.htm
http://www.climatechangeandyourhome.org.uk/live/
http://envirodigital.wordpress.com/about/