Climate change and its impacts on Australia's cultural heritage

Abstract

Little has been written in Australia about the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage places (but see Pearson and Williams 1996). The models used to produce predictions of the nature of climate change have been refined over the last decade, and have produced a range of scenarios that can at least provide a basis for discussing possible impacts on cultural places. Some implications of climate change are already being observed, and are most recently summarised in the 2007 reports of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007a and 2007b), which will be referenced through this paper. The paper draws on one presented on behalf of Australia ICOMOS at a UNESCO World Heritage Centre conference on climate change and World Heritage held in Paris in 2006.