24/05/2024 Culture, Science, Education and Media | Standing Committee
The PACE Standing Committee, meeting in Vilnius today, called on member states to include cultural heritage preservation in their strategies designed to address climate change and its impact. The parliamentarians expressed their concern at the fact that “all forms of cultural heritage – tangible and intangible – are now directly and indirectly threatened by the consequences of climate change”.
The resolution, unanimously adopted by PACE on the basis of the report by Andries Gryffroy (Belgium, NR), underlines that “the challenges posed by climate change to cultural heritage require adequate political responses at national, regional, local and European levels, a radical change of mindset and institutional behaviour, and a review of current methods”.
PACE also called on member states to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society, the Council of Europe Landscape Convention, and the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Finally, the Parliamentary Assembly recommended that the Committee of Ministers support transversal co-operation of the culture, heritage, education and youth sectors, as well as the implementation of guiding principles for an integrated approach to culture, nature and landscape management, and participatory governance models. It also called for the development of further synergies with the EU, UNESCO and international heritage institutions on evaluating the impact of climate change on cultural heritage.