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September 23, 2022

SustainabilityICOM & Climate Heritage Network: collective actions

In 2022, ICOM became a member of the Climate Heritage Network (CHN), a voluntary mutual support network committed to tackling climate change and achieving the ambitions of the Paris Agreement by mobilising arts, culture, and heritage communities.

ICOM’s active participation in this network, as a steering committee member, allows us to show solidarity and work together with like-minded organisations while promoting the role of museums in climate action and sustainability. Collective actions with numerous culture sector partners are currently being planned to ensure high visibility for museums during a side event at Mondiacult (Mexico, September 2022) and through activities linked to COP27 (Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, 2022). ICOM joined CHN as a member of its steering committee for the period 2022-2024.

What is the Climate Heritage Network?

The Climate Heritage Network connects organisations around the world that share a common commitment to strengthening the use of arts, culture, and heritage to help communities tackle climate change and achieve the ambitions of the Paris Agreement. CHN Members include government boards, offices, ministries at all levels, site management agencies, Indigenous People’s Organisations, as well as NGOs, universities, businesses, and other organisations. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) serves as the Secretariat for the CHN.

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Climate Heritage Network side event during UNESCO-MONDIACULT 2022

This event, organised by the CHN and entitled “Responding to the climate emergency: new imperatives for cultural policy” will be held on Thursday 29 September 2022, from 2:00 to 3:00 pm (Mexico time) at Galería Histórica Auditorium. This session seeks to advance understanding of how cultural policies can best help tackle these global challenges, and to build consensus as to priorities. The session will explore useful elements of culture-climate policy frameworks in order to aid operators in designing more specific culture-based adaptation, resilience, disaster risk reduction, safeguarding, & mitigation measures.

Leonardo Mellado, President of ICOM Chile, will speak on behalf of ICOM to recall the importance of museums in responding to the climate emergency. He will speak about tools such as the new definition of museums adopted in August 2022 and all the resolutions taken since 1972 and the role of museums as community leaders.

UNESCO-MONDIACULT 2022

The UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development – MONDIACULT 2022 will be convened by UNESCO forty years after the first Mondiacult World Conference on Cultural Policies held in Mexico City (Mexico) in 1982, and 24 years after the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies for Development held in Stockholm (Sweden) in 1998. The UNESCO-MONDIACULT 2022 World Conference will be hosted from 28 to 30 September 2022 by the Government of Mexico.

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