There has always been a culture -sized hole in UN climate negotiations: Will COP30 Help Fill It?
To get climate action back on track, COP30 must urgently address the cultural enablers and barriers to transformative change
By Marcele Olivera, Andrew Potts, and Alison Tickell
As international climate policy makers prepare to assemble in Belém for COP30, the simple truth is that those policies have so far failed to reverse climate change. Despite real progress in greening energy sources and growth in climate-aligned investment, the world remains dangerously off course to meeting the targets of the Paris Agreement. This failure is, in part, because those policies continue to overlook a critical factor and proven solution — culture and heritage. Whether COP30 will meaningfully address this gap remains uncertain. What is clear is that without confronting the social and cultural enablers and barriers to 1.5°C pathways and green transformation, the climate crisis will deepen.
This is because, at its core, climate change is a cultural crisis, a clash between extractive values and planetary boundaries. Meeting the Paris Agreement’s goals requires unprecedented and systemic societal transformation. Culture is the architecture that holds communities and societies together. Arts, heritage, creative industries, and Indigenous Knowledge and local knowledge offer powerful tools for education, storytelling, regenerative design, and mobilization; the keys to a just transition to sustainable futures.
This has been understood since COP1 in Berlin (1995), where Indigenous leaders called for climate planning rooted in alternative cosmovisions and cultural practices. Their advocacy has brought Indigenous Peoples closer to the center of climate policy, yet the same technocratic and market approaches still dominate the COPs.
Over time the movement has flourished, and climate action has been embraced by cultural actors globally. Advocacy at COP has also grown: artists, artivists, creative and cultural networks showing up in increasing numbers. Since COP25 in Madrid (2019), the Climate Heritage Network, a coalition representing over 500 organizations, has systematically advocated for putting culture at the heart of climate policy.
COP26 in Glasgow (2021) marked the first mention of “culture” in a COP decision and COP27’s cover decision included the words “cultural heritage.” These symbolic references were followed in 2023 by a policy breakthrough. The Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) Framework adopted at COP28 in Dubai includes protecting heritage sites and cultural practices among its 11 adaptation targets and acknowledges the importance of traditional knowledge, Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge, and local knowledge systems, as well as attention to skills, values, and attitudes.
The run up to COP28 saw the launch of the “Global Call to Put Cultural Heritage, the Arts and Creative Industries at the Center of Climate Action,” mobilizing thousands to advocate for a UNFCCC Work Plan for Culture. Centering people – both in climate policy and in the making of it — cannot be overemphasized. Transformative climate policy needs to recognize and strengthen cultural practice drawn from lived experience.
There is no progress in COP negotiations without the support of national governments. To complete the triangulation, also at COP28 the ministers of culture of Brazil and host country United Arab Emirates, Margareth Menezes and Salem bin Khalid Al Qassimi, launched the Group of Friends of Culture-Based Climate Action. Ministerial representatives from over 30 countries committed to providing political momentum to integrate culture into UNFCCC policy. This number has grown to 56.
But culture’s policy success has been incomplete; the GGA breakthrough more the exception than the rule. Perhaps most problematically, COP28’s Global Stocktake (GST) decision designed to guide climate policy for the next five years erased references to the social and cultural dimension of 1.5-degree pathways, disregarding recommendations by scientists.
In part because of this, progress made in Dubai was not translated into political success at COP29 in Azerbaijan. The failure to build an adequate foundation in Baku now has implications for Belém. Despite pleas to the contrary, culture is not properly embedded in the COP30 negotiations agenda.
Still, COP30’s broader developments show promise. The new Action Agenda, led by President-Designate André Aranha Correa do Lago, includes 30 strategic objectives— “super-leverage points” for transformation. Objective 19 highlights the role of culture and cultural heritage in climate action. An Action Agenda Activation Group, supported by High-Level Champions Dan Ioschpe and Nigar Arpadarai, is developing plans including the “Heritage Adapts! 3000 x 2030” and “Cultural Power: Narratives for Change” campaigns.
It is not too late for these actions to be converted into political success. If COP30 has a cover decision, as in prior COPs, it must reference culture and heritage.
But as we have seen, symbolic references alone won’t close the culture gap in climate policy. That’s why 2023’s Global Call campaign has evolved into We Make Tomorrow — a movement to secure deeper recognition of culture ahead of the Second Global Stocktake (GST2) that will be launched at COP31 in 2026. Signatories represent (at time of writing) over 200,000 voices calling for policy enablers to support culture and help people imagine and realize low carbon, just, climate-resilient futures. Presidency Youth Climate Champion Marcele Oliveira is championing We Make Tomorrow, and the importance of culture in the climate change conversation, especially for mobilizing and protecting children and youth and promoting intergenerational dialogue.
During COP30, cultural actions will abound. In the official zones, across Belem do Para, online, and around the world, culture and heritage actors will be speaking up and out on climate issues including environmental racism and climate justice, promoting circular economies, and championing nature-based solutions. Cultural action has always thrived in the streets, halls, and galleries outside the COP. Now it must thrive inside the COP delegate halls. We must use these final weeks to secure at least symbolic recognition of culture at COP30 and lay the foundation for transformative recognition of culture-based climate action at COP31 and beyond.
The 2025 UN Climate Conference (COP30) will take place in Belém, Brazil from 10–21 November. This article is the first in a series exploring the connections between cultural and climate activism and the political decisions expected to be taken at the COP by national ministers and negotiators. Future articles will examine entry points for culture and heritage in COP30’s adaptation, loss and damage, and mitigation negotiations.
Marcele Oliveira, 26, the Presidency Youth Climate Champion for COP30, is a cultural producer, communicator, and climate activist whose research focuses on the intersection between cultural practices and combating the consequences of climate change in marginalized communities.
Andrew Potts is the Director of Policy and Practice for Preserving Legacies, a National Geographic Society-funded project to support locally-led climate adaptation for heritage places. He is currently busy preparing for the 2026 launch of the Heritage Adapts! 3000 x 2030 campaign.
Alison Tickell founded Julie’s Bicycle in 2007 to bring creativity and culture into climate action. Alison has been a relentless advocate for systems-shifts across culture to transform responses to climate, nature and justice. She is lead convener for We Make Tomorrow: Culture at the Heart of Climate Action.
