The ICOMOS Climate Change and Heritage Working Group (CCHWG) was formed in 2017 to help address cultural heritage issues related to climate change. In 2021, the group was renamed the Climate Action Working Group (CAWG) and expanded its focus to include the implementation of the 2021–2024 ICOMOS Triennial Scientific Plan, education, resource creation, and managing key climate-related projects, including the National Geographic-funded Preserving Legacies Project and ongoing efforts to development of a Climate Action Toolkit for World Heritage.

Preserving Legacies: A Future for our Past welcomes a new cohort of heritage sites and custodians across the world to work together to ensure their places of cultural significance are protected from climate change impacts and allowing us to continue to learn from our past and inspire our future.
With climate change as their fastest growing threat, not only is their physical integrity at risk of erosion, but so are the values, knowledge and sense of community imbued in these places.

Climate change is a global problem which requires a global response. At the end of every year, governments from around the world meet at the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (or COP) to agree targets and work together for climate action. Increasingly, these conversations are acknowledging the importance of cultural heritage, reflecting the longstanding ICOMOS belief that culture is integral to meaningful and human-centred climate action. This belief lies at the heart of an exciting new ICOMOS-based project which is bringing together heritage professionals from around the world to share experiences and work together for long-term, sustainable change.

ICOMOS, as a founding signatory, is asking the national governments that are parties to the UN Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement to adopt a ‘Joint Work on Culture and Climate Action’ decision (JWD) at the next UN Climate Change Conference (COP28). Artists and cultural voices from across the world are uniting to call for climate negotiators at COP28 to put cultural heritage, arts and creative industries at the heart of climate action.