EU and Climate Change Risk to Cultural Heritage

An April 2024 report from the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) highlights the growing threat that climate change poses to Europe’s cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible. The increased frequency of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, floods and droughts, combined with rising sea levels, is putting archaeological sites, historic buildings, parks and even underwater cultural heritage at risk.

Climate change poses several threats to cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible.

For tangible cultural heritage, which includes movable assets such as artefacts and immovable assets such as buildings and archaeological sites, the main threats include:

• Changes in temperature patterns: Extreme summer temperatures, hot or extremely cold winters can cause cracks and splits in materials such as stone and brick, destabilising the structure of buildings and damaging archaeological sites.
• Changes in precipitation patterns: Floods, droughts, unusually strong storms and strong winds can erode materials, damage structures and cause landslides.
• Sea level rise: Significant threat to coastal sites and underwater cultural heritage.
• Increased ocean acidification: Damages underwater cultural heritage.
• Increased frequency of freeze/thaw cycles: Destabilises building materials.
• Forest fires: direct destruction of sites and damage caused by heat and smoke.
• Coastal erosion: loss of coastal sites and cultural landscapes.
• Increased pollution and bioinfestation: deterioration of materials.

Main threats

With regard to intangible cultural heritage, which includes traditions, local knowledge and cultural practices, the main threats include:

Displacement of populations and disruption of communities: the loss of communities can lead to the loss of local traditions and knowledge, with negative effects also on tangible heritage.

Damage to natural resources and cultural landscapes: the loss of natural elements important for cultural practices can threaten their survival.

Lack of recognition and support: the lack of policies and funding for the protection of intangible heritage makes it particularly vulnerable to climate change.

It is important to highlight that cultural heritage is not only a victim of climate change, but can also be a source of solutions to address the challenges it poses. Traditional and local knowledge, for example, can provide valuable information for climate change adaptation.

The report highlights that while climate change research is not new, its impact on cultural heritage is a relatively recent area of ​​study. The EU was a pioneer in this field, launching the first research project on the topic back in 2003. Since then, the EU has expanded its engagement, funding research projects, cooperation networks and educational programmes.

However, the report also highlights a worrying lack of coordination between climate and cultural heritage policies. Only seven EU countries have plans to coordinate these policies, and nine do not even have a specific legal framework for protecting cultural heritage from climate change.

Actions to address the challenges

The EPRS report recommends a number of actions to address this challenge, including:

• Integrate cultural heritage protection into all EU climate-related policies and funding programmes.
• Develop a coherent methodology for collecting quantitative data on the impact of climate change on cultural heritage.
• Promote research and innovation to develop adaptation and mitigation solutions.
• Raise public awareness of the importance of protecting cultural heritage in the face of climate change.

The report also highlights the crucial role of cultural heritage as a source of sustainable solutions to address climate change. Historic buildings, for example, offer locally rooted solutions for energy efficiency and climate resilience.

Eve though the European Union (EU) has limited competence in cultural policies, which are mainly national responsibilities, EU plays a supporting role to Member States, mainly through funding, non-binding recommendations, networking and cooperation platforms. So, the EPRS concludes that the EU has a number of tools at its disposal to address the threats posed by climate change to cultural heritage. The challenge now is to use these tools in a coordinated and effective way to protect this precious heritage for future generations.