Can Greece’s Cultural Heritage Withstand Climate Change?
Greece’s culture minister Lina Mendoni has outlined a plan to help protect Greece’s cultural antiquities from the damaging effects of climate change.
Speaking at a conference in Crete, Mendoni outlined a broad action plan at national and international levels which involves the creation of specific adaptation strategies for major archaeological sites to counter and withstand climate threats.
A pilot project, funded by the European Recovery and Resilience Facility, is in progress to ensure the sustainability of five high-value archaeological sites by 2025.
An ongoing seminar in Crete is expected to examine the climate risks facing cultural heritage and develop adaptation plans for a Greek archaeological site, with interdisciplinary support.
Sponsored by the Greek Ministry of Culture, the US Embassy, and ICOM’s Greek chapter, with academic support from the University of Athens, the event centers on collaborative efforts to safeguard cultural assets.
Mendoni highlighted that it is the third session of a series that brings together specialists from Cyprus, Turkey, Jordan, and Malta-nations, with rich cultural legacies now threatened by climate change. The seminar aims to encourage the exchange of expertise to overcome these significant challenges.
Greece’s Study on Climate Change’s Effects on Cultural Heritage
Earlier this year, Greece saw its first study examining the effect of climate change on the future microclimate of historical monuments and artifacts, which showed how extreme weather events will impact the country’s cultural heritage.
At the time of publication of the study, its author, Efstathia Tringa, a PhD candidate and researcher in meteorology and climatology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, said “Just like the human body, monuments are built to withstand a range of different temperatures. Thanks to our data, we were able to calculate the impact of the climate crisis on artifacts at museums and archaeological sites.”
Broadly, the study’s findings show that the combination of rising temperatures and higher humidity levels in the coming years could severely affect the chemical composition of certain materials used in the construction or manufacturing of artifacts, thus accelerating their decomposition or contributing to the prevalence of destructive mold. The challenges are even greater for open-air monuments, which will have to adjust to new temperature conditions.
Research on climate change is not a novelty, but climate change as it relates to cultural heritage is a relatively new area of exploration and policy.
The impact of climate change on cultural heritage made its way to the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Madrid in 2019 (COP25) and has become increasingly visible at subsequent COPs.
In 2003, the European Commission became the first European Union institution to launch a research project addressing the intersection of climate change and cultural heritage. Since then, the EU has expanded the scope and scale of its projects in this policy area.
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