By Marcele Oliveira, PerifaLab Executive Director
August 2024 – Less than 18 months before COP30 in Belém, People’s Palace Projects Brazil, in partnership with Perifalab hosted a meeting of cultural actors and climate activists on June 7th at Casa Rio. Among many issues, the central debate was how to mobilize the cultural sector so that culture is recognized as an important pillar of climate policies. To this end, we were introduced to an international coalition advocating for culture as an adaptation strategy that needs to be recognized in the official documents of the UNFCCC.
Participants in this conversation included managers of cultural spaces, climate activists, city-related mobilizers, and attentive movement agitators and coordinators. In his opening remarks, Thiago de Jesus from PPP highlighted how the coming months are crucial to securing a political victory for the cultural sector, building a consistent debate between climate and culture to formulate new joint action goals at national and international levels.
Following this, I moderated a discussion with guest Andrew Potts, a lawyer specializing in cultural policies, who shared insights on efforts to place art, culture, heritage, and creative industries at the centre of UNFCCC climate policies, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Andrew was at the meeting to share his experience in cultural mobilization from COP21 in Paris to COP28 in Dubai, including the creation of the ‘Friends of Culture-Based Climate Action’ group, co-chaired by Minister Margareth Menezes, and the action plans for COP29 in Baku and COP30 in Belém. He presented us with the theory of change from the Climate Heritage Network, a coalition dedicated to ongoing work in cultural and climate policies.
Culture has never been recognized for its potential in COP political decisions. This means that the most powerful mass communication tool we have as a society is not considered a strategy for raising awareness and combating climate misinformation. Does that make sense? Experiences scattered across peripheral, indigenous, and biome-protecting communities demonstrate the efficiency of local awareness, which protects cultures as a way of life and survival. This fact alone should be enough, but it isn’t, as these communities are constantly under threat, losing their lands and well-being to unsustainable development. The future we want must include sustainable laws and practices in our daily lives, quickly and effectively, through a wave of awareness in both mobilization and legislation.
From the Amazon to the Atlantic Forest, civil society that engages with the climate agenda through meetings, forums, congresses, and other activities—which are cultural!—recognizes the difficulties of practically integrating sustainability, whether in the project itself or in caring for the planet. The era of plastic cups is over. But so is the era of reusable cups, eco-bags, and exorbitant amounts of solid waste sent to cooperatives without public recognition. Today, consciousness must shift in both producers and consumers. Culture needs to be officially part of a strategy for climate action.
“Sustainability means involving solid waste cooperatives and making them visible to the public, valuing the work done by communities that protect the biome where the event is held, and aligning the discourse of solidarity with the discourse of emergency, demanding and mobilizing around government support to adapt cultural funding calls to consider alternative measures for heatwaves or excessive rain.”
Marcele Oliveira essay published by Activism School in Brazil.
Last year, for the first time, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) featured a pavilion dedicated exclusively to the Entertainment and Culture sectors, the Entertainment + Culture Pavilion. This pavilion, built by global civil society, is heading towards COP29 and will likely come to COP30. Therefore, we want it to reflect the identity of Brazil, Latin America, and the Global South!
With this in mind, our next steps will focus on the text being developed by the G20 Culture Working Group—the meeting of the world’s twenty largest economies and guests, which will take place in Brazil in 2024—and on parallel events that intersect culture and climate, to be aware of the risk of tying the agenda to unsustainable development that deforests, degrades, and destroys tangible, intangible, natural, and human-built heritage. Having ministers and cultural workers from so many countries is essential for this discussion.
We hope to see more and more cultural actors engaging with those involved in the climate agenda, so we can continue to focus on culture and climate. The 4th meeting of this Culture Working Group is scheduled for November in Salvador Brazil, and we have much to discuss before then, with a network engaged in sharing information related to potential advocacy at the G20 towards COP30. Shall we do it together?
Join us! It will be fun! Towards COP30!
By Marcele Oliveira, Director at PerifaLab- Follow Marcele on Instagram