"Archaeology and Climate Change: Heritage Under Threat" - exhibition at the European Parliament
Meroe, Sudan: Advance of Sand Dunes
© MAEE
- from: 20.10.2008
- to: 23.10.2008
- In: Strasbourg
Combating climate change is one of the priorities of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union. In this context, France wishes to raise awareness among the Community's actors of the importance of taking action to preserve European and world heritage endangered by climate change.
Heritage conservation is a responsibility shared by all of the signatory countries to the 1972 World Heritage Convention and the European Convention on the Protection of Archaeological Heritage adopted by the Council of Europe in 1992.
This inspired the "Archaeology and Climate Change: Heritage Under Threat" exhibition, which will be housed in the European Parliament buildings in Strasbourg. This exhibition, which will be inaugurated by Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the French Minister of State for European Affairs, is under the patronage of Marie-Hélène Descamps, MEP.
Although global warming has concerned countries for a long time, the threat to cultural heritage from climate change has only recently been taken into account: UNESCO's World Heritage Committee recognised the emergence of this threat in March 2006, and the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education published a study on the protection of cultural heritage from natural risks in February 2007.
Today, it is therefore Europe's duty to play a driving role to promote environmental, preventive and restorative archaeology based on its experience, and skills and cooperation network. Its actions will have a dual objective, notably to monitor the preservation of European heritage and help developing countries put in place management tailored to their heritage sites in the face of climate risks.
In this way France wishes to encourage the European Union to play its full part in the framework of a cultural cooperation policy at the forefront of reflection on global challenges.
- Updated: 18.12.2008
