Museums for Climate Action

Museums for Climate Action
How can museums support transformative climate action?
What’s the situation?
Climate change is one of the most urgent and serious challenges of our time. It is the symptom of a deeper problem: an unsustainable relationship between people and the rest of nature. However, climate change is also difficult to address, or at least many people and organisations find it difficult to address. Public education, training, awareness, access to information, participation and co-operation on climate change matters has been part of international agreements for more than 30 years, but the museum sector has been rather slow to embed this into its work.
How I work with climate action:
I have been working with climate action and museums for more than 20 years, as a major part of my work. While climate action is often thought of as reducing emissions, that is not all of it. We also need to adapt to current and future climate impacts, and we also have to make sure that climate action is fair as part of sustainable development. My work is firmly rooted in the UNFCCC, Paris Agreement and the current Glasgow Work Programme on Action for Climate Empowerment. What does this mean? It means supporting public education, training staff, promoting public awareness and access to information on climate change challenges and responses, supporting rights-based participation in climate change decision-making, and supporting co-operation on these topics.
Some activities have included the following:
Practical guidance for museums: I’ve written a number of open-access guides and toolkits to help museum workers and others to understand, plan, deliver and communicate climate action.
Training and development programmes: I’ve helped develop and deliver training and development programmes, for example as part of the project Reimagining Museums for Climate Action.
Exhibitions: I’ve led on the development of a number of exhibitions on climate change, that, together, have been seen by millions of people.
Policy developments: I’ve contributed to policy developments at UN Climate Change events, in the development of the current Glasgow Work Programme on Action for Climate Empowerment, an international programme for the Paris Agreement.
I helped write the template sustainable development action plan for ICOM, called the ICOM 2030 Action Plan, which uses some of the same structure as the Glasgow Work Programme to promote policy coherence.
The toolkit ‘Mobilising Museums for Climate Action‘, developed for the project Reimagining Museums for Climate Action, sets out five simple actions for museums to take:
- reducing emissions in museums, rapidly
- supporting society to reduce emissions
- ensuring museums are fit for the future
- supporting communities and nature to adapt
- making sure that climate action is fair, as part of sustainable development
The toolkit breaks climate action into bite-sized pieces to promote clear understanding and usage.
Action for Climate Empowerment. How can galleries, libraries, archives and museums support climate empowerment everywhere and for everyone?
Museums for the Paris Agreement. How can museums use the Paris Agreement as a template for ambitious, effective climate action?
Conferences and conference publications:
I co-organised two international conferences, in 2018 and 19, on climate action and communication. I co-edited the two conference publications.
Other publications:
I’ve written many articles on climate change and museums, as well as reports and the results of surveys.
You can explore climate-related publications on my ORCID record.
Climate policy interventions
Museums as key sites to accelerate climate change education, action, research and partnerships. Submission to the Talanoa Dialogue ahead of UNFCCC COP24 (2018).
Museums and the Doha Work Programme. Presentation at UNFCCC SB50, Bonn (2019).
Curating Climate Together: Museums and Action for Climate Empowerment. Workshop event in the Nordic Co-operation pavilion, UNFCCC COP25 Blue Zone, Madrid (2019).
Information on Steps Taken by Global Museums to Implement the Doha Work Programme and in Relation to Action for Climate Empowerment. UNFCCC Doha Review process (2020).
Powering climate action through heritage policies, organisations, research and public programmes. Panel event in the EU Pavilion, UNFCCC COP26 Blue Zone, Glasgow (2021).
Recommendations and Views on Future Work to Enhance the Implementation of Article 6 of the Convention. UNFCCC Doha Review process (2020).
Museum-related activities in support of the Glasgow Work Programme on Action for Climate Empowerment, Jan-Aug 2022. Submission for UNFCCC annual reporting (2022).
Submission to the Global Stocktake for the Paris Agreement (2023)
Empowering museums to empower others through ACE. Poster presentation in the ACE Gallery at UNFCCC SB58, Bonn (2023).

What this means for you:
I can help you understand and contribute to climate action, that is focussed, goal or outcomes based, and that is measurable.
How Curating Tomorrow can support you:
Curating Tomorrow can help you understand and take climate action – mitigation, adaptation, as part of climate justice and sustainable development – through:
- Understanding the potential of museums to contribute to, and get in the way of, climate action
- Speaking at conferences
- Online and/or in-person workshops for staff or groups of staff, drawing on the guides and toolkits I have written
- Advice
- Strategy, policy and plan development
- Contributing to public-facing activities (exhibitions, events, consultations) on climate action
If you are interested in understanding sources of emissions and measuring emissions, I work with a US-based partner, Co2Action. We can help you measure and report your emissions in line with the GHG Protocol.