Thread by @AndrewSPotts

#WeAreBackIn! As the United States re-joins the #ParisAgreement, there's no better time to spotlight the central role that culture and heritage can & must play in transformative climate action. A THREAD.
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#ClimateHeritage

The @ICOMOS #FutureOfOurPasts report outlines the myriad ways cultural heritage supports achieving #ParisAgreement targets, incl heightening the ambition & capacity of communities to act, supporting climate adaptation, contributing to GHG mitigation & addressing loss & damage. /2

Our cultures in all their diversity; the wisdom, memory & identity embedded in our local and planetary heritage, inspires and heightens climate ambition: the will and means to achieve the objectives of the #ParisAgreement and win the #RacetoResilience. /3
#ClimateHeritage

Thru knowledge, stories & narrative; the immense power of place & past; & people-centred & values-based approaches, cultural heritage has the power to stress urgency, educate abt climate change, build public awareness & enable public participation (Paris Agreement Article 12)
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Traditional knowledge & indigenous science represent contemporary climate solutions and technologies; our shared values, wisdom and sense of place, build capacity to #ActonClimateNOW (Paris Agreement Articles 9, 10 & 11). /5
#ClimateHeritage

We must adapt to the climate change we've already caused. Culture mediates our understanding of risk; Our traditions & knowledge guide our responses, from individual behaviours to institutional change to enhance adaptive capacity & reduce vulnerability. (Paris Agreement Art 7) /6

While we work to adapt, mitigation is urgently needed to reduce GHG emissions & enhance sinks to make climate change more manageable. By emphasising reuse, conservation & circularity, heritage embodies and inspires a green, decarbonised future. (Paris Agreement Article 2 & 5). /7

Cultural heritage promotes nature culture linkages across landscapes, champions building reuse to avoid the carbon of new construction, values the pre-carbon era wisdom of farming and land use, & inspires and showcases mitigation ambitions across sectors. #ParisAgreement. /8

With its long-term goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, the times scales of the Paris Agreement challenge usual thinking. Heritage *uniquely* can help, exemplifying the values of inter-generational equity thru work today to assure tmrw's generations their patrimony. (Article 4) /9

Not all impacts can be adapted to. Extreme & slow onset events are causing damage today. Local knowledge, citizen science & participatory cultural approaches can help people prepare & recover, while threats to iconic heritage remind us what's at stake. (Paris agreement Article 8)

#FutureOfOurPasts aims to help heritage orgs benchmark their #ClimateAction work. No better day than today for every cultural institution, agency & advocate to renew their ambitions to safeguard our planet and its precious heritage, & #ActonClimateNOW. FIN icomos.org/en/77-articles…