Conserving built heritage is as important as halting climate change, argues the National Trust. © Suzanne Carter
The National Trust will be urging the Government to recognise the links between climate change and protecting heritage, at the organisation’s AGM in Cheltenham on November 4 2006.
Sir William Proby, the Trust’s Chairman, points out the central role that both Britain’s natural and historic environments play in quality of life, and how acting on climate change is crucial to the protection of both - sentiments echoed by Fiona Reynolds, the Trust’s Director General.
“Care for our history and historic environment – our physical record of where we come from – actually goes hand in hand with care for our planet as a whole,” she said in a statement ahead of the AGM.
“Concern for one is critical for concern for the other. As we made clear in our History Matters Declaration: ‘A society out of touch with its past can have little confidence in its future’.”
The mass blog organised as part of the History Matters campaign in October received 46,000 entries, proving how many people take an interest in their history.
“Drawing the same conclusions, I can only reflect that the great surge in public consciousness and love for the nation’s history and historic buildings and landscapes comes from the same processes and sentiments – the same bit of brain – that makes us so preoccupied with the future,” she continued.
“It is, if you like, a kind of cultural component to the Gaia theory in which environmental philosophers see the world like a single organism with everything in it almost organically interdependent.”
Sir William builds on her statement, arguing that heritage itself is in danger from climate change: “We cannot afford to be complacent,” he said in another pre-AGM statement. “A century of conservation teaches us how fragile our heritage is: vulnerable to fire, flood and storm, but equally to the relentless drive of economic growth, and increasingly to climate change.”
Proposals to transform roads around Stonehenge have been deemed too expensive by the government. © English Heritage
Ultimately, the Trust is calling on politicians and policy makers to acknowledge that the public, in its support for the conservation of the natural environment and built heritage, is right – and budgets should reflect the value of these assets.
“We are confident,” said Ms Reynolds, “that the public share our belief that any Government that talks about the importance of ‘quality of life’, or an opposition that talks of the ‘happiness agenda’ should and could do much more to support these crucial indicators of our society’s cultural and spiritual health.”
The Director referred to the selling off of properties by the government in order to raise revenues, with little regard for the buildings’ heritage value (the subject of the Trust’s recent report Disposal of Heritage Assets by Public Bodies) as well as cuts in funding to a number of organisations that look after the natural environment, including National Parks and the Environment Agency.
The National Trust is custodian of 650,000 acres. © NTPL/Ian Shaw
For its part, the National Trust says it recognises that the impact of climate change are also having significant cost implications. The Trust's bill for electricity, oil and gas in 2005-06 amounted to almost £2.5million with electricity cost being more than £1 million of this.
In response it has begun looking at renewable energy resources. A project in Wales at Carflwyn Hall has seen a ground heat recovery system cut the heating bills whilst similar energy savings are now being made at other Trust properties in an attempt to reduce contributions to the causes of climate change.
"We are committed to reducing our contribution to the causes of climate change, and believe this will save us money as well," said Iwan Huws, Director for Wales.
"Climate change is already costing us money. Our buildings are experiencing more flood damage and coastal features like footpaths erode more quickly. Repairs are expensive and we are concerned that these costs will increase as we see higher sea levels and stormier weather."
It all comes at a time when a major reform of the heritage protection system is being led by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). A Heritage White Paper is expected by the end of 2006, which the Trust hopes will address many of the challenges set out by a Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee report published in the summer.
Inevitably, increased government scrutiny will be at the core of the Trust's future plans as Fiona Reynolds confirmed. “The National Trust believes you cannot have a society highly sensitised to the care of the environment and the safekeeping of the planet that does not acknowledge that the past is an integral and critically important component in all of our presents, and – even more – our future.”
