Re-Calibrating the Paris Agreement to Integrate Natural and Cultural Heritage Discourses into the International Climate Negotiations

The impact of climate change on cultural and natural heritage has gained increasing attention from policymakers. Rising sea levels and extreme weather conditions pose significant threats, particularly to the heritage of small island developing states and least developed countries. These challenges are expected to intensify both economic and non-economic losses, highlighting the need for a recalibration of international climate policies and financial mechanisms to include heritage preservation. However, heritage remains largely overlooked in global climate policy frameworks. Its inclusion has been limited to the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage and the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience. Additionally, key mechanisms of the Paris Agreement—such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and the Global Stocktake—fail to sufficiently integrate heritage concerns, despite their importance in building climate resilience. Addressing this gap requires expanding climate policy discussions to incorporate insights from heritage experts, policymakers, and networks. This research assesses the existing knowledge and policy gap, analysing how heritage is considered in submitted NDCs and NAPs. By identifying these gaps, it proposes strategies for embedding heritage into climate policy, ensuring its role in achieving climate-neutral and resilient futures.