Heritage and environment
Climate change is a major challenge for our societies. The Ministry of Culture carries out and supports various projects to combat its consequences on the tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
Climate change is a major challenge for our societies. Cultural heritage, whether physical, intangible, natural or digital, is not immune to climate change, which leads to profound environmental and societal changes, a higher frequency and intensity of extreme climate events (extreme winds, torrential rains, heat waves, cold waves, fires, flash floods, etc.), thus increasing the risk of degradation and damage.
But cultural heritage can also be a resource within the framework of sustainable development policies, for example through the reclamation of old buildings or the reactivation of traditional know-how.
Thus, the theme of the ecological transition, chosen by the Prospective and Innovation Committee (CPI) of the Directorate General of Heritage and Architecture (DGPA), is the subject of in-depth reflections involving all the actors of heritage.
The actions of the JPI-CH, a European system of joint programming on cultural heritage
Since its inception, the JPI CH funded through transnational calls for projects various research projects aimed at better understanding and coping with these changes (CLIMA, PROTHEGO, REDMONEST). In 2020, it published a new strategic research and innovation agenda which sets as one of its priorities the study of their impacts, the identification of adaptation solutions and the exploration of the relationships between heritage and sustainable development.
In September 2020, JPI CH organized a workshop entitled “Cultural Heritage and Climate Change: New Challenges and Opportunities for Research” in partnership with its counterpart on climate, climate, climate and climate JPI “Connecting Climate Knowledge for Europe”. This workshop marks the beginning of a collaboration aimed at identifying research priorities at the interface between heritage and climate sciences, and at fostering the development of transdisciplinary collaborations.
At the March 15-16, 2022 symposium “A Heritage for the Future, a Science for the Future”, the two initiatives, supported by an expert panel, launched a white paper presenting a number of topics for further research. New knowledge and data are needed to enable heritage stakeholders to respond to the climate crisis, to better understand its impacts and to develop appropriate strategies, or reveal the ability of the heritage to mitigate its negative effects. This White Paper also proposes a list of instruments to be put in place to accompany the development of this field of science and to support the activities of other organisations involved in climate action.
Finally, a call for a joint research project will be launched in 2023 on this theme, funded for France by the Agence Nationale de Recherche (ANR).
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