Climate Action in the Cultural Sector: Responsibility and Systemic Transformation

The escalating climate crisis, with its multidimensional ecological, social, and economic repercussions necessitates a fundamental assessment of the cultural sector's role in advancing environmental sustainability. Rather than being perceived solely as a domain impacted by environmental degradation, culture must be recognized as a transformative force capable of enabling systemic change (Sokół, Pangsy-Kania & Biegańska, 2023), a claim raised by the UNESCO Mondiacult 2022 Declaration.

This Special Issue of the European Journal of Cultural Management and Policy seeks to critically explore how cultural and creative sectors can serve both as advocates for climate actions while taking ecological responsibility in their own actions. The reflection promoted in this Special Issue is also informed by the work of the ENCATC Working Group on Culture and Climate Action, which is committed to advancing a comprehensive and ethically grounded agenda for climate-responsive cultural practices. Drawing on the vision articulated in the UNESCO Mondiacult 2022 Declaration that serves as the basis for Mondiacult 2025 and aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Working Group underscores the need to understand culture as both impacted and an enabler of climate action. It recognizes the responsibility of the cultural field—including performing arts organizations, heritage institutions, creative enterprises, funding agencies and policy-making bodies— to inspire societal transformation through narratives and symbolism as well as to take responsibility by realigning its own infrastructures, governance, and operations with sustainable principles (Klein, Gerlitz, & Spychalska-Wojtkiewicz, 2021).

Against this background, a central premise of this Special Issue is thus the dual imperative facing cultural and creative organizations: to contribute meaningfully to public discourse and behavior around climate issues (Maxwell & Miller, 2017; Shutaleva, 2023; Mickov, 2025) while also institutionalizing sustainable practices and reporting within their own frameworks (Ejibe et al., 2024). This includes rethinking institutional procedures in terms of energy usage, procurement, mobility, digital infrastructure, and the broader ecological footprint of cultural production (Collins & Cooper, 2017). Equally important is the imperative for transparency and accountability (Besana, Esposito & Fischella, 2019). Increasingly, cultural organizations are expected to disclose and communicate their environmental impacts through mechanisms such as sustainability reporting, carbon accounting, and climate-related disclosures (Borin, 2024; Donelli, 2019; Masucci et al., 2025). These practices not only enhance institutional credibility, thus amplifying the role of arts and cultural organisations for raising awareness, but also serve as vital tools for strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, and policy advocacy. As the cultural sector is increasingly called upon to contribute to the sustainable transition, it becomes essential to understand how sustainability is embedded in strategic planning and social reporting (Borin 2023; Cerquetti et al. 2023). Yet, as frequently discussed in arts management research (Labaronne 2017), evaluating the performance of cultural organizations through other rationalities, such as social value or ecological responsibility, remains challenging. These complexities highlight the need for more integrated and accountable approaches to sustainability in the governance of arts and cultural organizations.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions that examine how culture may be activated to promote regenerative futures and climate awareness, while also taking ecological responsibility and be accountable for its own actions, from multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives that improve our understanding of these topics.

The following research questions intend to inspire prospective contributors and are suggestive rather than prescriptive:

● How do cultural narratives and artistic practices promote ecological awareness, climate adaptation, and collective behavioral change?
● How can the cultural sector uphold cultural rights and contribute to climate justice, particularly in relation to marginalized, indigenous, and climate-vulnerable communities?
● What opportunities exist for aligning cultural policy with environmental governance initiatives, such as the European Green Deal, the New European Bauhaus, and UNESCO’s Culture|2030 Indicators?
● What role can culture play in articulating a regenerative paradigm that moves beyond mitigation and toward environmental restoration, intergenerational solidarity, and holistic resilience?
● In what ways can cultural institutions implement environmental responsibility through governance, procurement practices, sustainability accounting, reporting, and disclosure frameworks, including the application of AI and emerging technologies?
● What innovations are being developed in sustainable exhibition-making, sustainable practices in the performing arts, low-impact touring, ethical digital curation, or green infrastructure in cultural institutions?
● How can digital technologies be deployed in ways that align with ecological sustainability and reduce environmental burdens associated with data storage, streaming, and cloud computing?
● What are the implications of integrating sustainability into cultural management education, professional development, and capacity-building?
● How might inclusive governance models in the cultural sector address issues of gender, intersectionality, and epistemic diversity in the context of the climate crisis?
● How do we balance the needs of artists and artistic production with the demands for climate and ecological responsibility?
● What kind of cultural policies encourage and promote institutional transformation?
● In what ways are cultural sustainability and ecological sustainability mutually supporting and in what ways are they reciprocally challenging? What are the roles of research, cultural policy, and cultural management in either case?

Authors are welcome to submit articles presenting original studies or literature review work. Please consult the journal's information regarding Article Types, Author Guidelines, and Publishing Fees. Please contact the Editorial Office at ejcmp@frontierspartnerships.org for any query concerning this initiative.

Even though abstract submission is not mandatory, we encourage all interested researchers to submit a “manuscript summary” before submitting their article. Manuscript summaries do not have to coincide with the final abstract of the article.