The Climate Heritage Network (CHN) has launched ‘Imaging Futures’ Futures Project with a US$ 1,250,000 Mellon Foundation Grant while additional funding from the National Geographic Society, 1772 foundation, and Aliph Foundation brings to $1,500,000 initial funding for the new project.
CHN writes:
The Climate Heritage Network (CHN) is thrilled to announce the launch of the ‘Imagining Low Carbon, Just, Climate Resilient Futures Through Culture and Heritage’ project, made possible by a generous $1.25 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. This transformative initiative aims to leverage culture and heritage as powerful catalysts for effective climate action, empowering communities worldwide to safeguard their cultural legacies while promoting sustainable futures. The Imaging Futures project is a direct outcome of the CHN’s 2022-24 Action Plan and will ensure that key successes secured by CHN members working together under that plan are leveraged for even greater impact going forward. The grant includes funding for a facilitated consultation of CHN members on updating the CHN’s governance and dues structure to assure the long-term sustainability of the CHN and to support development of a new, holistic CHN Action Plan for the future.
‘For too long, inattention to the socio-cultural dimensions of climate action have limited the success of climate planning, policy and finance,’ said Andrew Potts, the CHN’s founding coordinator. ‘This generous gift will help drive an urgently-needed acceleration of the work to flip this paradigm.’ Working within the context of the global climate crisis, the project focuses on frontline communities across Africa and North America.
‘Across Africa and the world, historically marginalized communities who have contributed least to climate change face its most severe consequences,’ says Barbra Babweteera, Executive Director of The Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda. ‘With the help of the Mellon Foundation, CHN members aim not only to leverage more support to help these communities protect their knowledge, values, and cultures, but also to claim a leadership role in climate action.’
Concept development for this project was supported by a capacity-building grant from the Geneva-based ALIPH Foundation secured for the CHN by Europa Nostra, which serves as the CHN’s Europe Region Co-Chair. The Mellon grant is being bolstered by additional funding, including $125,000 from the National Geographic Society’s Preserving Legacies project and $75,000 from the 1772 Foundation. Together, these gifts amount to $1,500,000 in new funding to scale up and out culture-based climate action.
