Climate Policy Frameworks for the Ecological Transition of the Cultural Sector

The Example of the United Kingdom

In 2012, Arts Council England (ACE) became the first national cultural body to make environmental reporting a condition of funding for all National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) and Major Museum Partners (MMPs) in the subsidized arts and culture sector. As part of their funding agreements, these organizations were required to develop environmental action plans and report annually on their environmental impacts, focusing initially on energy, water, and waste. This policy framework, developed in partnership with the culture and sustainability charity Julie’s Bicycle, was designed to build environmental literacy, skills, and capacity within the sector. Its overarching goal was to empower organizations to adopt sustainable practices confidently and reduce their ecological footprint across their activities and operations.

Over time, ACE’s environmental policy expanded in both scope and ambition, driven by the arts and culture sector’s growing commitment to sustainability. Today, organizations can track and report data across a broader range of impact areas, including business/artist/crew travel, audience travel, fleet/freight travel, materials, show power, waste, water, and sewerage. The program has been further enriched with a wealth of resources, including thematic guides, digital tools, and training opportunities, which are all aimed at supporting and accelerating the sector’s ecological transition.

According to ACE’s annual reports, energy consumption across the portfolio has decreased by more than 25 percent, and participating organizations have achieved a 50 percent reduction in emissions since reporting began in 2012. These reports also highlight broader achievements. The Beyond Carbon Survey, featured in the Culture, Climate and Environmental Responsibility Annual Report 2023–24, found that 94 percent of funded organizations now incorporate environmental sustainability into their core strategies. Additionally, 59 percent have appointed environmental champions to their governance boards, and an increasing number provide carbon literacy training for their staff. Furthermore, 70 percent of organizations have produced or programmed work exploring environmental themes, while 63 percent include sustainability requirements in production briefs and open calls.

The United Kingdom remains a unique example of the way cultural stakeholders’ early adoption of environmental sustainability as a core principle leads to advanced ecological transition.

Julie’s Bicycle, the author of these annual reports, also emphasizes the broader benefits of these efforts. Organizations have reported improved team morale and wellbeing, enhanced reputations, financial savings, access to new funding opportunities, and inclusion in a growing creative ecology. Many have adopted cleaner technologies, sustainable goods and services, greener waste solutions, renewable energy suppliers, and new skills and knowledge essential for sustainable practices.

ACE’s environmental policy remained unique until its counterpart, Creative Scotland, adopted a similar approach in 2015, requiring Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) to measure and monitor their carbon emissions. This requirement became mandatory in 2018, with organizations obliged to submit environmental action plans and annual impact reports. To support compliance, Creative Scotland partnered with Creative Carbon Scotland, a grassroots culture and environment agency helping the sector decarbonize. Recent assessments by Creative Carbon Scotland show that reporting organizations now demonstrate a strong understanding of their core emissions and have started developing strategies aligned with net-zero targets.

More than a decade after ACE launched its environmental policy, no comparable sector-wide, systematic response to the climate crisis has emerged elsewhere, and the United Kingdom remains a unique example of the way cultural stakeholders’ early adoption of environmental sustainability as a core principle leads to advanced ecological transition.

This success is closely tied to the United Kingdom’s leadership in climate policy, exemplified by the groundbreaking Climate Change Act of 2008. Passed with overwhelming cross-party support, the Act established a comprehensive legal framework for emissions reduction, mandating the government to develop and implement cross-sectoral policies to meet binding targets. Informed by climate science and research into the economic impacts of climate change, the Act institutionalized the urgency of the climate crisis and has since been recognized as a model for similar legislation worldwide.

The Act’s implementation fostered a dynamic interaction between overarching and sector-specific policies. Prominent cultural institutions and arts leaders engaged in consultations with ACE, emphasizing the cultural sector’s role in the ecological transition. These discussions enabled ACE to assume environmental leadership and co-design a sector-specific policy framework aligned with the nation’s climate ambitions.

Global Context: Cultural Climate Policy Lagging Behind

More than a decade after the launch of ACE’s pioneering model, global progress on embedding climate action into cultural policy remains limited. A 2021 international survey commissioned by the British Council revealed that few national cultural bodies have actively engaged with the climate crisis. While many cultural policies reference broad sustainability issues (e.g., heritage, cultural rights, sustainable development), they rarely address climate or environmental concerns directly.

The report noted that the global creative community has embraced environmental action across local, sectoral, and national levels, often merging climate, nature, and justice with cultural rights and access. However, much of this work has been led by grassroots initiatives or individual pioneers, with national cultural policies lagging behind. Respondents identified key barriers, including insufficient financial resources, expertise, and legal mandates, as well as weak linkages between culture and climate government departments or national climate strategies (where such strategies exist).

Rising Interest and the Influence of the European Green Deal

Interest in the climate emergency surged dramatically in 2019, driven largely by the increasing frequency and severity of extreme climate events. This urgency was further amplified by Greta Thunberg and the global student climate movement, which brought the crisis to the forefront of public discourse, capturing widespread public attention and influencing policymakers. In Europe, a pivotal moment came with the adoption of the European Green Deal in 2020—an ambitious strategy aimed at making the European Union climate-neutral by 2050.

Designed to be implemented across European Union member states and integrated into all sectors of the economy and society, the European Green Deal’s broad framework quickly extended to European Union cultural policies—mirroring the United Kingdom’s example, where the presence of a robust, legally binding national climate policy appears to have been crucial in fostering meaningful cultural climate action. The European Green Deal prompted a realignment of priorities, which took shape in the European Union Parliament’s resolution to “green” the Creative Europe program, the European Commission’s flagship initiative supporting cultural and audiovisual sectors. The program was revised to reflect the broader acknowledgement that “culture plays a fundamental role in the green transition” because of the ways in which cultural content and activities can contribute to shaping values and behavior, but also in order to underline that “cultural and creative organizations can adopt and promote greener practices—in processes related to the creation, production, exploitation and distribution of content, the management of buildings, venues and events, and the mobility of artists and culture professionals, as well as audiences.” In line with the European Union’s climate commitments, “green” criteria were introduced into funding calls, making sustainability a key factor in evaluating project proposals. All actions under Creative Europe are now expected to actively contribute to addressing the climate emergency.

These cultural actors, through their frequent collaboration with international counterparts, have helped strengthen a growing global trend that positions the arts and culture as central, active contributors to addressing the climate and environmental crisis.

Although cultural policy remains a sovereign matter for member states, European Union policy frameworks have significantly influenced priorities and trends across the bloc’s creative industries. The integration of the European Green Deal into European Union-level cultural policymaking has had a transformative impact, not only by affecting those receiving Creative Europe funding but also by driving broader changes throughout the cultural sector within the European Union and beyond.

This shift has, on one hand, inspired a wave of sectoral responses, particularly from representative organizations such as networks, coalitions, and professional associations. These cultural actors, through their frequent collaboration with international counterparts, have helped strengthen a growing global trend that positions the arts and culture as central, active contributors to addressing the climate and environmental crisis. Today, many major international cultural organizations have actively embraced environmental sustainability, often leading the way by developing intra-sectoral policies and guidelines for their members—frequently ahead of national legislation—while committing to global climate goals. Notable examples include the Gallery Climate Coalition, International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts (IETM), the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the International Music Council, International Theatre Institute (ITI), the Network of European Museum Associations, mitos21-European Theatre Network, European Theatre Convention, International Association for Theatre and Performing Arts for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ), European Network on Cultural Management and Policy (ENCATC), On the Move, the Producers’ Guild of America, and European Union of National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC), among many others.

On the other hand, the topic of environmental sustainability is inevitably gaining traction among national cultural authorities through the European Union’s policy-making tool, the Open Method of Coordination. An inter-ministerial working group has been tasked with aligning national cultural policy interventions to drive the green transition of the cultural and creative sectors (albeit with its mandate restricted to the level of consultation). This aligns with the priority “Culture for the Planet: Unleashing the Power of Culture,” as outlined in the European Union Work Plan for Culture 2023–2026.

National Efforts in the Wake of the European Green Deal

Some European Union member states have advanced their environmental policy frameworks in response to the European Green Deal. Austria’s Ministry of Culture, for instance, offers extensive guidance to the sector, including events, workshops, resources, and case studies. The ministry has also developed an Austrian Ecolabel for museums, performing arts organizations, cinemas, and film production companies, and it has partnered in a national investment fund for climate-friendly cultural businesses.

Germany’s Ministry of Culture has established a dedicated “green office” to support ecological transitions through initiatives like the Network for Sustainable Action and a Federal Cultural Foundation pilot program providing training on green management and emissions reduction.

The French Ministry of Culture has developed and implemented one of the most comprehensive and advanced policy frameworks to date to support the ecological transition of the cultural sector. This new framework, a cornerstone of the Ministry’s strategic plan for 2023–2027, applies to all supervised cultural entities and public cultural institutions. It focuses on decarbonization, biodiversity, resource sobriety (i.e. responsible use of resources), and the circular economy. A detailed guide outlining the policy was published in 2023, situating the initiative within the context of the Paris Agreement, the European Green Deal, and the French government’s national climate strategy, France—Nation Verte (“France—Green Nation”).

The policy is structured around three main lines of action, each supported by specific timeframes: conducting carbon audits and building a centralized database, providing financing for the ecological transition, and fostering green skills and capacity-building. Carbon audits are already underway for several major organizations, and approximately 35 million euros will have been allocated to support green projects by the end of 2024. By 2026, the aim is for all arts and cultural training institutions to have adapted their curricula to align with the ecological transition. In practical terms, the Ministry’s “action plan” is organized into five key axes, including fostering new creative practices, promoting “digital sobriety” (i.e. minimizing unnecessary digital consumption and adopting practices that reduce environmental impacts from digital activities), and encouraging greener mobility, with particular emphasis on energy conservation.

Participation in the framework is mandatory for small, medium, and large grantees, as well as the broad network of major public cultural institutions in France. The framework operates through mutual agreements: beneficiaries commit to meeting the requirements and timelines, while the Ministry pledges to provide support and facilitation. Step-by-step guidance is available on the Ministry’s dedicated web page alongside a comprehensive resource center. This resource center offers detailed information on cross-ministerial funding opportunities, eco-labels and certifications, practical tools and guides, and training programs to build capacity for sustainable practices.

Rising global antagonisms have created conditions that enable major polluters to backslide on their international climate commitments—or ignore them entirely.

Policy Enables Transition and the Transformative Power of Culture

The limited presence of regulated frameworks for the cultural sector’s ecological transition does not imply that transformation is absent; in fact, significant progress is underway in various parts of the world. In the United States (which lacks a national cultural agency or ministry of culture), as well as in Canada and Australia, the vast cultural landscape and federal administrative structures often mean that policy support and coordinated collective action rely primarily on state/local climate policies. However, the responsibility for advancing environmental sustainability has so far largely rested upon the cultural sector itself. Representative networks and associations, such as Broadway Green Alliance, the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, and Green Music Australia have developed self-regulatory frameworks to spearhead sustainability initiatives.

On a global scale, however, progress remains noticeably uneven. The alignment of cultural policies with broader climate strategies, as illustrated in the examples above, underscores the transformative potential of well-structured frameworks. Such policies provide legitimization and guidance, help secure financial support, and are essential for addressing challenges that extend beyond the cultural sector’s capabilities—such as decarbonizing buildings or public transport systems.

In the grand scheme of things, the cultural sector’s environmental impact is a mere footnote in global carbon emissions—a fact that may partly explain its neglect by cultural policymakers. However, integrating culture into the global effort for a sustainable transition brings the added value of climate advocacy, leveraging the unique ability of the arts and culture to engage and communicate with audiences worldwide. We find ourselves at a critical juncture, where ongoing wars, the energy crisis, inflation, private economic interests infiltrating governments and democratic institutions, and rising global antagonisms have created conditions that enable major polluters to backslide on their international climate commitments—or ignore them entirely. Donald Trump’s second term in office bodes poorly for global efforts to reduce emissions.  Meanwhile, the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan did little to counter the growing frustration over the sluggish pace of progress. As evidence of an impending climate collapse becomes increasingly urgent and global climate governance hangs in the balance, culture’s ability to inspire, empower and advocate for the sustainable transition must be fully embraced.