Written by Henry McGhie, Curating Tomorrow, henrymcghie@curatingtomorrow.co.uk

This year has seen not one but two ‘COPs’ (Conference of the Parties), the big meetings where governments monitor their progress towards international agreements. In early November, COP16 for biodiversity was held in Cali, Colombia. In the second half of November, COP29 was held in Baku, Azerbaijan. These big meetings get a lot of press attention, but they are rather poorly understood and are not always reported that well. If you think the COPs are where the leaders of the world get together to hammer out the world’s future, the reality is much more humdrum. By the time countries gather together, they have usually made up their minds on their negotiating positions and not much will change from there on. COP has also become too big and has many ‘layers’ to it. For the climate COPs, there is the Blue Zone, which you need to get a special accreditation to enter (referred to as a ‘badge’), and within that there will be really big plenary events and smaller side events that everyone with a badge can attend. There are also lots of negotiations taking place, inside rooms, that you often can’t access as well as a mass of pavilions, mostly from countries and in some years, businesses. Outside the Blue Zone, there is a public-facing Green Zone that the public can access (sometimes it is in a museum, as it was in 2021 when it was in Glasgow Science Centre). When the climate COP is on there is also a lot of activity going on outside of COP itself, mostly organized by civil society groups, and also by businesses. So, when people say they’ve ‘been to COP’ it can mean a few different things.

Now, whatever happens in COPs, and whatever governments manage to do and not do, the international agreements are not only directed towards them. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Climate Agreement all contain references to the importance of ‘all-of-society participation’, and the importance of, among other things, science, education, public awareness, partnerships and more. It is very easy to spot opportunities for museums to connect their existing activities in these areas with the Conventions, and to use them to set goals, make plans, and tell the story of what they did. This is a gift for museums with natural history collections. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, these agreements are still not really factored into the work of museums, so we need to pick up the bat ourselves.

Working with the agreements also gives us access to excellent resources and ready-made plans of action, so we don’t necessarily need extra funding, or to reinvent the wheel. For the CBD, the current plan of action is called the Global Biodiversity Framework, running from 2022-2030. For the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, the current workplan for Action for Climate Empowerment is called the Glasgow Work Programme, as it was adopted in 2021, and it runs till 2031. If you want to take part in multilateral, high-ambition action, in a very direct way, then these are for you. I’ve written open-access guides to help museums connect with them and use them in a concrete way, supported by some funding from the British Ecological Society.

Now, one of the topics of focus this year has been the importance of considering climate action and biodiversity together. This makes sense as climate change is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity, and because biodiversity can also be part (but not all!) of effective climate action. While climate change can seem rather abstract and hard to imagine, conserving and restoring biodiversity is much easier to get your head around. There are abundant opportunities for museums to connect the two, whether that be in terms of:

• exploring land use and land use change
• making sure climate action involving land use is fair
• promoting good-quality nature-based solutions (and not blanket forestry)
• mobilising collections and collections data (into GBIF) to understand environmental change
• developing collections as an ongoing resource for understanding environmental change
• helping people understand the value of biodiversity for flood prevention, sponge cities and much more
• using the international agreements as an opportunity to join the global partnership addressing biodiversity and climate challenges

Involving people directly in ecosystem restoration, whether it is in their garden, in a local park, or in nature-rich places, is also something that museums can help with.

When we address climate change and biodiversity together, we make sure that in addressing one challenge, we are not just creating new challenges. This is a principle of sustainable development, where we work for win-win-win outcomes, rather that win-lose outcomes.

When we involve people and communities in decisions regarding climate action and biodiversity, we ensure decisions are going to work for as many people as possible, reflect a broad range of views, and have a stronger mandate for any changes.

Museums can do all of these things, and they don’t need to be the ‘hero’ in the piece: just creating diverse, open opportunities that are related to the real world.

With massive opportunity and massive need, there is a great opportunity for museums with natural history collections to get their story straight on how they can – and in many cases are – contributing to addressing matters of crucial public interest. Please have a look at the open-access guides. They are there to help you. Good luck!

Further reading

Action for Climate Empowerment: a guide for galleries, libraries, archives and museums

Museums for the Paris Agreement (2024)

Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Museums (2022)

Museum Collections and Biodiversity Conservation (2019)

Museums for Better Futures (2023) (Churchill Fellowship report)

Mobilising Museums for Climate Action (2021)