World Heritage sites race to adapt to a warming planet

Skellig Michael, a UNESCO World Heritage Site is being adapted to reduce the vulnerability of the site since the increased footfalls due to its use in Star Wars.
Skellig Michael, a UNESCO World Heritage Site is being adapted to reduce the vulnerability of the site since the increased footfalls due to its use in Star Wars. Image: Ronan Mac Giollapharaic CC BY SA 4.0

UNESCO defines categories of heritage as natural, built and intangible. The world heritage list contains a wide variety of sites and most of them are now adversely affected by climate change and loss of biodiversity in some way or other.

An urgent need to protect heritage against these adversity has increased. Heritage can also be used in climate action. 75 million hectares of forests around the world protected as natural heritage is used as an example of carbon mitigation.

To read more on how World Heritage Committee us looking for ways to heritage to mitigate environmental issues and fight climate change, log on to Irish Times.

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