You are viewing your 1 free article this month.
Sign in to make the most of your access to expert book trade coverage.
Hundreds sign open letter urging UN to give creatives bigger role in climate action
Creatives and experts have urged the United Nations to give the cultural sector “a more prominent role in the global fight against devastating climate change”.
Amid COP30, the premier summit on climate change, more than 200 people, including actors, authors, academics and policymakers, signed an open letter calling for the use of “storytelling” to tackle a “lack of imagination” behind climate inaction. Signatories included Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Kingsolver, Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey and climate writer and author Bill McKibben, among others.
The letter was coordinated by the University of Birmingham and argues that “science alone has failed to inspire the action needed to combat climate change”. It goes on to propose that “storytelling should be better utilised to drive change, communicate the threat of the climate crisis, and inspire visions of a more equitable and sustainable future”.
It also calls for the UN and its member states to “meaningfully” involve the cultural sector by “fully involving creative arts and industries in future COP negotiations and consultations”, as well as “providing more platforms for writers and artists, particularly indigenous storytellers and those on the frontline of climate change, at future COPs to harness the power of the creative industries to inspire individual and societal behaviour change”.
Continues...
Read More
Signatories also demanded that UN member states ensure that governments prioritise “interdisciplinary environmental research combining the arts, humanities and sciences through targeted funding, and offer funding for creative projects about the climate crisis, recognising that the arts will be crucial for a just transition to more sustainable societies”. They also asked that the international organisation “prioritise interdisciplinary environmental research combining the arts, humanities and sciences through targeted research funding to reveal and develop the imaginative potential of stories for tackling climate change”.
Professor John Holmes, president of the global Commission on Science and Literature from the University of Birmingham, said: “Despite 30 years of COP summits, we have failed to make the changes we need to avert a climate crisis. This is fundamentally a failure of the imagination. If governments around the world, including our own in the UK, are serious about meeting net zero targets and averting disaster, they need to address this failure by working more closely with the creative industries.”
He added: “Stories can inspire hope and drive change. They reach us emotionally as well as intellectually, reminding us of what we truly need and value. They are vital to mutual understanding, cultural continuity and the promise of a hopeful future in a time of deep anxiety and rapid change. It is well past time that our leaders stop viewing arts and culture as an accessory, and start viewing it as a vital tool in the fight against climate change.”
