Coinciding with the European Heritage Days 2022, which this year revolves around the topic of sustainability, the OMC group of Member States’ experts, with the support of the European Commission, has published a new report on strengthening cultural heritage resilience in the face of the effects of climate change.

From January 2021 to April 2022, a group of 50 experts was mandated to study and map the impact of climate change on cultural heritage. Coming from 25 EU Member States plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, this large scale investigation collected practices to protect and safeguard Europe’s cultural heritage.

For the very first time a political mandate was given to examine cultural heritage in times of climate change, in the framework of the Council’s Work Plan for Culture 2019-2022.

The group’s research lead to the publication of the report “Strengthening cultural heritage resilience for climate change. Where the European Green Deal meets cultural heritage” formulating a set of key recommendations for policy makers.

Already in 2003, the European Commission launched the world’s first call for research projects to investigate the impacts of climate change on outdoor cultural heritage. In 2008, more research was conducted on the impacts on indoor cultural heritage and the future energy demands of built heritage by coupling climate models with building simulation.

In 2022, the information gathered has been alarming, as climate change is directly and indirectly threatening all forms of cultural heritage, amongst others by severe precipitation, long heatwaves, droughts, strong winds and sea-level rise – all of which are expected to increase in the future.

Read the full news here.