24-28 January 2022

Join us and contribute to a knowledge-building initiative connecting climate change to the diversity of human cultures and heritage. 

British Council and Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport logos

As climate crises intensify and spread, culture can, and should play a role in reducing the impacts of climate change. Climate.Culture.Peace is a unique initiative looking to explore the interconnections between climate change, culture and heritage, peace and conflict, and disaster resilience. This virtual conference will create spaces for exchanging knowledge and sharing experiences, practices, and research, supported by a dedicated online portal and a network of communities and individuals from around the world.

Temple of Luxor
Abo al-Haggag Mosque inside Luxor Temple, Egypt. Image by Alia Nassar, 2018.

This initiative is generously supported by the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund (CPF), in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Participation from all CPF target countries1 across the Middle East and Africa is particularly encouraged; contributions from around the world are also most welcome.

Climate.Culture.Peace is creating a participatory and inclusive space to foster a dialogue on culture as the missing link in climate action. Together with 55 partners representing multi-disciplinary institutions and diverse communities from 33 countries, we are putting the spotlight on heritage and cultural places, which are threatened by climate-related disasters and conflicts driven by environmental stresses. To build this conversation, we are bringing together knowledge holders, policy advisors, practitioners, researchers, local communities and youth leaders.

Culture and heritage bring together the full range of human experience - from the past into the present. It resides in all of us, our lives and livelihood, our art, our places and traditions and our knowledges and practices.

Do you have a story to share? Do you have research, knowledge, experiences, art or ideas that connect climate change, culture and heritage, peace, conflict, and disaster resilience?

We invite you to submit a proposal for a contribution using our web form. Contributions may be presentations, case studies, videos, photos, music, or recordings.

To guide this initiative, we have outlined four themes that broadly capture how culture and heritage are intertwined with climate change and human experiences of peace, conflict, and disasters. Proposals for contributions should respond to one or more of the following four themes:

  1. Culture – the missing link
  2. Climate change as a risk driver for culture and people
  3. Culture based mitigation, adaptation and renewal
  4. State of knowledge and action

These themes may be interpreted broadly and creatively. More in-depth explanations of them can be found in the Call for Contributions.

Proposals for contributions may be submitted via this web form by 2 January 2022. Proposals only need to include a brief (150-200 word) description of the contribution.

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS

1 The British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund, in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, supports projects which protect cultural heritage at risk due to conflict or climate change, mainly in the Middle East and parts of North and East Africa.