The Future of Our Pasts: Engaging Cultural Heritage in Climate Action

About this book

ICOMOS "The Future of Our Pasts: Engaging Cultural Heritage in Climate Action" is a report published by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in 2019, prepared as a contribution to the scientific and policy debate ahead of COP25 and subsequent climate negotiations. It argues for the recognition of cultural heritage as both a victim of climate change impacts and a resource for climate change mitigation and adaptation responses. The report makes a compelling case that cultural heritage — historic buildings, archaeological sites, cultural landscapes, and intangible heritage including traditional knowledge systems — faces escalating threats from climate change.

Rising sea levels threaten coastal historic settlements and low-lying archaeological sites; increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events damages historic structures; changing temperature and humidity regimes accelerate the deterioration of building materials and conservation of museum collections; and desertification threatens cultural landscapes in arid regions. More creatively, the report argues that cultural heritage offers positive contributions to climate action. Historic urban centers, with their dense mixed-use development, walkable streets, and existing infrastructure, represent intrinsically low-carbon urban forms that should be preserved and strengthened rather than replaced.

Traditional building knowledge — vernacular construction techniques adapted over centuries to local climates, materials, and resources — embodies accumulated environmental intelligence that is directly relevant to contemporary sustainable design challenges. Traditional ecological knowledge embedded in cultural practices can inform ecological restoration and sustainable land management. The report includes a detailed analysis of the carbon performance of building retrofits versus replacement: in the majority of life cycle analyses, the retention and careful upgrading of existing buildings generates less total carbon over a multi-decade period than demolition and replacement with new construction, even when the new buildings are highly energy efficient.

This "retained carbon" argument provides a powerful economic and environmental basis for heritage conservation. Sources: ICOMOS (icomos.org); ICOMOS "The Future of Our Pasts" 2019 official publication; climate change and cultural heritage scientific literature.