New report urges Venice to get its climate change act together

2019-07-17T07:00:00-04:00

Venice is full of water, Venice floods, the climate is visibly changing, and sea levels are rising, so you would expect Venice, of all places, to have an official strategy for what to do about it—but you would be wrong. The management plans produced by the City of Venice for Unesco in 2013 and 2018 barely mention the subject and twice, in 2016 and 2019, Unesco’s World Heritage Committee has failed to call them out on this astonishing failing.

"We are used to thinking that, given enough will and money, there is a solution to everything, but this report says that we must get used to the idea that in many cases there will be no solution," writes a frustrated Anna Somers Cocks for The Art Newspaper and explains how a new report by the International Council on Museums and Sites (Icomos) could lay out an urgently needed roadmap for climate change action for cultural heritage sites. "It emphasises again and again: collaborate, share knowledge and remedies, educate, and—above all—plan ahead. Then only may we be able to mitigate the approaching catastrophe."

In other recent Venice-related news: the 17th International Architecture Exhibition just announced a guiding vision for the 2020 Venice Biennale.

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New report urges Venice to get its climate change act together