The European Cultural Heritage Green Paper

March 22nd, 2021 marked the day that the European Cultural Heritage Green Paper was presented to the general public created by the inputs of organisations Europa Nostra, ICOMOS, European Investment Bank Institute, Climate Heritage Network and European Heritage Alliance.

This paper with the title “Putting Europe’s shared heritage at the heart of the European Green Deal” is a reaction from the culture and heritage sector to the long awaited European Green Deal (the executive summary can be read here). This Green Deal is distinct as an important policy initiative by the European Commission that would make Europe at the forefront of innovation and preservation by making Europe climate neutral by 2050. In order to ensure this goal that will eventually become a legal obligation, it means that the Green Deal would have to invest in environmentally friendly technologies and work with international partners to improve global environmental standards and many more actions

that will follow this.

However, the European Cultural Heritage Green Paper focuses on the capacity and potential of cultural heritage and how it can have an important role in achieving this green deal policy. This paper also exhibits the importance of including the action of the cultural heritage professionals and community in reaching these goals therefore, it offers a series of suggestions for policy-makers and for cultural heritage stakeholders. Integrating cultural heritage this way into climate action shows the devotion that heritage has toward its community and how it has a great potential to contribute to the forward-thinking and innovative nature of this deal and for the future of Europe. This policy has come in time to create the changes that are urgently needed for Europe and through this urgency there is so much to learn about the strength of our communities, shared knowledge and determination to preserve what we have been given. With the unity in this shared goal, younger generations can look up to this major task that is yet to be accomplished and in this way be encouraged to make the right decision for our planet and environment, but ultimately for our own collective good.

To read the full paper, please click here.

This article was written by European Heritage Youth Ambassador Hana Kohout