Environmental impacts on the historic environment can involve flooding, coastal change, extreme weather events and changes in the distribution of species. Climate change is continually increasing the likelihood, magnitude and frequency of these processes. Historic England's ongoing role is to commission research and provide expert advice to protect historic places.
Facing climate uncertainty, Historic England is continuing to focus on finding the best solutions to manage vulnerable parts of the historic environment. We strongly support urgent climate action and believe heritage is part of the solution. The 2022 Historic England Climate Change Strategy describes Historic England’s response to the climate crisis. Between 2020 and 2022, Historic England ran a free series of webinars on climate change and cultural heritage. Watch the webinar recordings on our website.Buildings and the construction industry are among the largest carbon polluters in the UK today, and there is consensus that we urgently need to tackle carbon emissions from buildings. Historic England Advice Note 18 ‘Adapting Historic Buildings for Energy and Carbon Efficiency’ emphasises that changes to historic buildings can achieve the complimentary goals of protecting our heritage and adapting to climate change. In 2016 and 2022, we submitted our own Historic England Climate Change Adaptation Reports in response to the Adaptation Reporting Power callouts from the government. Recent projects have also explored the skills needed to fulfil the government’s net zero ambitions, researched approaches to climate change risk assessments, and created a standardised vocabulary of climate hazards for heritage. |
