Climate change poses widespread threat to our cultural heritage

People take selfies at the flooded St Mark's square in Venice in 2019. Many World heritage sites are under threat from the effects of climate change. Picture: Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images

World heritage sites, old churches, and historic gardens are under threat from rapidly accelerating climate change effects, according to the European Commission.

A report from 50 experts from 25 EU member states and other European nations studied the impact of climate change on cultural heritage from January 2021 to April 2022, and issued a number of recommendations for preserving and protecting heritage sites from extreme weather fallout.

"Climate change is, directly and indirectly, threatening all forms of cultural heritage, whether a World Heritage Site or a small pilgrimage chapel in the countryside, an old steelworks, or a historic garden," the report said

"The most evident threats stem from extreme climatic events — severe precipitation, long heatwaves, droughts, strong winds and sea-level rise — all of which will increase dramatically in the future, as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

These events have immediate consequences, such as floods, forest fires and erosion, for Europe’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

Catastrophic events and deterioration processes

The impacts of catastrophic events are coupled with the slow onset of changes arising from deterioration processes, it warned. 

However, links between climate change and heritage deterioration have not been studied in depth, the report said.

"There is little in-depth knowledge about the impacts of the climate crisis on intangible heritage. 

"The topic of rapidly increasing, simultaneous, or concurrent extreme events is currently a subject of debate in climate science, but the consequences of concurrent catastrophic events for the whole cultural heritage sector have not yet been adequately dealt with or investigated."

This is now a major source of concern, it said.

There have been no economic assessments capturing the full range of costs of climate change impacts on European cultural heritage, it also warned.

Out of the 28 countries that took part in the expert group, nine do not have any legal framework for heritage and climate change. 

Ireland is only one of seven countries with plans to coordinate the two areas of work, along with Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Slovenia, Finland, and Sweden.