Dubai, December 2023
People’s Palace Projects was part of a coalition of artists and cultural voices from across the world that are uniting to call for climate negotiators to put cultural heritage, arts and creative industries at the heart of climate action. This led to the establishment at COP28 of the Group of Friends of Culture-Based Climate Action.
Over 30 Ministers or government representatives, inter-governmental organisations including UNESCO and the European Union, and a large delegation of committed cultural advocates from across the globe attended the historic inaugural meeting of the Group of Friends of Culture-Based Climate Action, co-chaired by the United Arab Emirates and Brazil, recognising the key role of culture for transformative climate action.
Countries that have joined the Group of Friends include the UAE, Brazil (co-chairs), Bahrain, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mali, Malta, Pakistan, Serbia, Senegal, Seychelles, Spain, Syria and Uganda.
The participants unanimously adopted the Emirates Declaration on Culture-Based Climate Action. This visionary Declaration paves the way for adopting a Joint Work Decision on Culture-Based Climate Action at COP29 and subsequently to a related action plan ahead of COP30 in Brazil.
Watch Thiago Jesus talking at COP28:
During COP28, our Indigenous partner, Pirata Waura, who traveled to Dubai with PPP spoke at the Resilence Hub. Pirata shared the story of this sacred cultural heritage of the Upper Xinguano peoples whose petroglyphs were destroyed in an attempt to erase culture and expropriate land.
Please watch Piratá Waurá talking at COP28 from 46′