On 29 October in KwaZulu-Natal, UK Culture Minister Stephanie Peacock backed the KwaDukuza Declaration at the G20 Culture Ministers’ meeting, putting culture’s role in climate action and an inclusive digital future squarely on the table. The UK’s intervention-published as a transcript on 3 November-signals support for South Africa’s first African G20 presidency and its culture track.

South Africa confirmed ministers had adopted the KwaDukuza Declaration at Zimbali around KwaDukuza, committing the G20 to protect cultural heritage, grow the creative economy and embed fairness for creators online. That framing matters for climate policy: it yokes heritage protection to sustainable development rather than treating it as a side issue.

Peacock linked the UK’s domestic steps to this global push, noting Britain’s ratification of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2024 and welcoming South Africa’s accession this year. The Convention took effect for the UK on 7 June 2024 and for South Africa on 24 April 2025, expanding cooperation on living traditions that are themselves under climate pressure.

She pointed to the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme-highlighted as having undertaken 130 projects across Africa-and praised museums and cultural institutions as custodians of heritage in the declaration. It’s a reminder that safeguarding records, skills and stories is an adaptation measure in its own right.

The climate case for urgency is stark. UNESCO and the World Resources Institute reported in July that 73 percent of World Heritage sites face high exposure to water-related hazards-drought, stress or flooding-while UNESCO warns coastal and urban heritage will see mounting risk with sea-level rise. Recent research on Rapa Nui even projects wave damage to iconic moai by 2080 without stronger defences.

The UK cited practical work already under way through British Council programmes. ‘Withstanding Change’, led by the International National Trusts Organisation, is restoring and climate-proofing six historic sites with partners in Egypt, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Jordan, pairing local training with exchanges at National Trust properties and turning each site into a hub for community learning.

This sits within DCMS’s International Cultural Heritage Protection Programme, which added a climate strand in 2019 and funds the Cultural Protection Fund delivered by the British Council. Since 2016, the Fund has awarded over £50 million to 159 projects in 19 countries, with new climate-related grants rolling out across Africa and Asia. The model blends skills, livelihoods and resilience.

Ministers also foregrounded the creative economy’s potential. UNCTAD estimates creative services exports hit $1.4 trillion in 2022, while UNESCO places the wider sector at around 6.1 percent of the global economy and a major source of youth employment. That scale is why policy signals from the G20 matter for creators and cultural workers facing climate and digital disruption.

What changes on the ground? For heritage managers and city authorities, this agenda means baking climate risk assessment into every conservation plan, investing in drainage, shade and fire-readiness, documenting living traditions at risk, and opening collections digitally so communities can keep using them. UK partners are already testing these approaches across three UNESCO sites in North Devon, Fforest Fawr and Hadrian’s Wall, while the declaration gives cover for faster scaling through bilateral and multilateral funds.