The recent COP28 marked the first COP meeting at which culture and cultural heritage were on the global agenda as forces to be mobilised for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Asean civil society participation in COP was key to gaining this recognition.
COP, or officially “Conference of Parties”, is the annual meeting of UN member states to discuss, negotiate and try to reach a consensus on dealing with global climate change.
COP28, held over two weeks this past December in the UAE, hosted a record 500,000 in-person visitors. Southeast Asia Cultural Heritage Alliance (Seacha), a pan-Asean alliance of cultural heritage-focused civil society groups, sent 11 delegates from eight Asean countries, including youth advocates, artists and practitioners, to COP28. They co-organised six COP events to promote culture for climate change action.
COP28 UAE delivered landmark achievements, including the first-ever Global Stocktake, energy transition away from all fossil fuels, $85+ billion commitments of climate finance on sectors such as Lives and Livelihoods, Loss and Damage, Green Climate Fund, etc. These achievements were all reported on in global media. But global media did not cover the achievements made at COP28 in bringing cultural wisdom and cultural heritage to the agenda.
For the first time at COP, a “High-Level Ministerial Dialogue on Cultural-based Climate Action” was convened. More than 25 Ministers of Culture, plus the heads of inter-governmental cultural organisations such as Unesco, and also non-state organisations, including Seacha, attended this meeting. Ministers expressed their strong belief that culture, cultural wisdom, and cultural heritage should form part of the solution to the climate change threat.
The meeting adopted the UAE “Emirates Declaration on Cultural-based Climate Action”. This important document stated that the collective aim is to strengthen political momentum for effective, inclusive, coherent, and coordinated action by advocating for culture and heritage-based climate action and creating a path for integrating culture into climate action in the future. “Leading up to this Ministerial Dialogue, Climate Heritage Network (CHN), a global cultural heritage network promoting culture-based climate action, had launched A ‘Global Call to Action‘ to put Culture at the Heart of Climate Action’, launched before COP28. This petition was submitted to COP28, but over the forthcoming year much further work remains to be done to secure a much larger number of signatures on the petition.
At this Ministerial meeting, the Group of Friends of Culture-Based Climate Action (GFCBCA), was launched. This is an informal platform among member states to share, exchange, and build momentum on culture and heritage-based climate actions. Co-chaired by the UAE and Brazil Ministers of Culture, it will extend invitations to supportive COP member states.
These achievements resulted from a year of preparatory work undertaken by allied partners around the world, including Seacha, through the Climate Heritage Network. The strong support CHN received from the conference host, the UAE government’s Ministry of Culture was key to success at COP 28.
The preparatory work started a year ago when Seacha and the Siam Society organised a conference in Bangkok in January 2023, titled “Cultural Wisdom for Climate Action: The Southeast Asian Contribution”, to highlight aspects of Southeast Asian cultural wisdom that can make a meaningful contribution to climate change action in today’s world. Seacha’s 11 representatives presented this message at COP28. Why is culture relevant to climate change? Because most people remain trapped in set modes of thinking. They are unable, or unwilling, to support the changes that are needed to mitigate climate change. Technology to arrest climate change may be developed, but will it be adopted in time? Besides, technology by itself will be inadequate to achieve climate change mitigation. This is where cultural heritage comes in. It can attract and mobilise large groups of people and build understanding. Art, music, and other forms of creativity can inspire the individual and social behavioural change needed if we are to forestall climate disaster.
Most importantly, the cultural wisdom of our ancestors in Southeast Asia contains much knowledge that we urgently need to recollect, or re-learn, in the 21st century if we are to achieve the goal of limiting temperature increase to a rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Our ancestors in Southeast Asia knew how to live in harmony with nature, exploiting nature’s bounty without destroying nature. Traditional ways of agriculture, community control of forests and watersheds, building design and construction practices, urban layout, and belief systems can be adapted to modern needs to make present-day living and working much more climate-friendly.
Previously culture was rarely given attention in climate change mitigation planning, policy, and action. In most countries, and especially in Southeast Asia, Ministries of Culture are not invited to the table when climate change policy is formulated, other than to deal with threats that climate change poses to heritage assets and intangible culture.
The potential contribution remains far from being fully realised and appreciated by governments and the UN framework. It falls upon civil society in the cultural sector and an interested public to secure political commitments, and validate with rigorous research and evidence how various traditional ways of living, knowledge, techniques, and nature-based solutions are accessible, adaptable, effective, and affordable instruments of climate response suitable for tropical and developing countries.
Moe Moe Lwin is Seacha Vice-Chairwoman, Co-Chair of Culture@COP28 Working Group, and Director of Yangon Heritage Trust.