Statement – World Heritage Convention and Climate Change Roundtable

A Roundtable was hosted by the Australian Academy of Science in consultation with the Australian Academy of Law on Monday, 6 December 2021, to generate ideas to address the operational and legal consequences of climate change on World Heritage assets.

The Roundtable addressed three key topics that the 2021 draft Climate Policy identified as needing resolution:

• Should a property be inscribed on the World Heritage List while knowing that its potential Outstanding Universal Value may disappear due to climate change impacts? 
• Should a property be inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger or deleted from the World Heritage List due to impacts beyond the sole control of the concerned State Party (i.e., threats and the detrimental impacts on the integrity of World Heritage properties associated with the global impacts of warming from anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas emissions)? 
• Will it be impossible for some natural and cultural properties to maintain the ‘original’ Outstanding Universal Value for which they were inscribed on the World Heritage List, even if effective adaptation and mitigation strategies are applied?  

Download the statement (PDF, 147KB)