The European Cultural Heritage Green Paper “Putting Europe’s shared heritage at the heart of the European Green Deal was launched in The Hague in March 2021.

Produced by Europa Nostra in close cooperation with ICOMOS and the Climate Heritage Network, with the input of the European Heritage Alliance and the support of the European Investment Bank Institute, the Green Paper is a concrete response to the European Green Deal. It proposes to take into account and to encompass culture and cultural heritage in the action against climate change, also raising awareness to mobilize the cultural heritage community for effective climate action.

The Green Paper was introduced by partner members (Ermann Parzinger, President of Europa Nostra; Teresa Patricio, President of ICOMOS e Francisco de Paula Coelho, Dean of the European Investment Bank Institute), and then presented by Andrew Potts, the coordinator of the ICOMOS Climate Change Working Group. In his presentation, Andrew Potts focused not only on the effects that climate change might have on European cultural heritage but also and mainly on the role that culture and cultural heritage might have in Climate Action, being them key actors in building resilience, adaptation, and sustainable development. Since the Green Deal states, “All EU actions and policies will have to contribute to the European Green Deal objectives”, Andrew Potts concludes that even Cultural Heritage must be taken into consideration!

After special supporting messages by Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth and by Ambroise Fayolle, vice-president of the European Investment Bank, also several representatives of European institutions – such as Dace Melbārde, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) of the European Parliament and Marcos Ros Sempere, member of the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) and coordinator of the New European Bauhaus Friendship Group of the European Parliament –  responded to the presentation of the Green Paper offering their support.

The webinar, attended by more than 500 people from all over Europe, ended with the contribution of some of the participants who also have an active role in the context, such as Alexandra Mitsotaki, co-founder and president of the World Human Forum and member of the High-level roundtable for the New European Bauhaus and, from Italy, Erminia Sciacchitano from the Minister Franceschini’s Cabinet. The participation in the webinar has definitively shown a high interest among all the actors in the European community on cultural heritage.

The Foundation School of Cultural Heritage works together with the Italian Ministry of Culture to achieve the objectives set up in the interinstitutional partnership “Culture and Cultural Heritage” of the Urban Agenda, bringing back culture within the discussion on the Green Deal.