The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage and the Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage Alliance (SEACHA) are proud to announce our participation in the upcoming 2023 UN Climate Conference, COP28, this December!

The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international climate summit, which is held annually. The COP conferences, now in their 28^th year, bring together world leaders, civil society activists, scientists, and parliamentarians to propose the next steps in the global quest to control climate warming to a rise not in excess of 1.5° , as set forth in the Paris Climate Treaty. COP28 UAE will take place from 30 November to 12 December 2023 at Expo City, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates expecting 70,000 participants.

Co-Chair of the Working Committee for Culture@COP28

The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage and SEACHA are co-chairing the Working Committee for Culture@COP28 Initiative by CHN (Climate Heritage Network) together with the Petra National Trust from Jordan, as this year COP is focused on Asia-Pacific Region from Cyprus to Fiji. Aims include to amplify culture and heritage voices in challenging climate change issues and to obtain a Joint Work at COPs to include cultural perspectives into climate change policy.

A part of our work co-chairing the Working Committee for Culture@COP28 Initiative by CHN we have begun a Global Call to Action urging the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to include the cultural heritage, arts, and creative sectors in climate policy. We hope that this campaign might lead to the adoption of a ground-breaking ‘Joint Work Decision on Culture and Climate Action’, a UN process which would trigger policies and frameworks to enable culture to contribute fully to climate solutions. This campaign aims to unite culture and heritage voices in a global effort to put culture from arts to heritage at the heart of climate change planning, policy, and action.

In the long run, this joint work decision would display a commitment from the UNFCCC to ensure that culture is fully integrated into the future work of the Convention. We are calling on arts and cultural heritage organizations as well as individuals to sign the Global Call to Action and demonstrate the arts and cultural heritage sectors’ commitment to integrate cultural wisdom with climate policy. The full Global Call to Action and signature form is available on the CHN’s Call to Action webpage. Please add your signature and join us today!

Our Side Events

The Siam Society and SEACHA have created 6 activities to voice out Southeast Asian perspectives on how cultural wisdom can help us cope with climate change. We have a talented cohort of speakers coming with us to bring Southeast Asian cultural voices with key international climate policy issues.

Our 14 participants include senior experts, young activists, and representatives of ethnic communities. Of them, we have 1 Burmese, 1 Temuan ethnic of Malaysia, 4 Thai including 1 Karen ethnic, 2 Vietnamese, 1 Filipino, 1 Indonesian, 1 Lao, and 2 Singaporean speakers; additionally, 6 are youth activists and 8 are senior experts.

Our events’ key messages will reflect:

• Traditional Southeast Asian, climate-friendly methods for living in harmony with nature which are largely ignored by policy makers,
• The role of Southeast Asian spiritual traditions in creating an understanding of the connection between humanity and nature as the basis for activism,
• The ways the age-old and eco-friendly principles of traditional architecture and urban design can be adapted to modern materials and conditions to create better homes and cities.

Learn more about The Siam Society and SEACHA’s participation in the upcoming COP28 and about each of our 6 activities at https://seacha.org/seacha-in-cop28/