CULTURAL GLOBAL STOCKTAKE
If you are interested in staying informed about the 2nd draft consultation of the Cultural Global Stocktake, fill in the form at the bottom of the page.
Marrakech Partnership Accelerator, March 2026 - Cultural Global Stocktake, Core writing group (credit: SIDDIQUI MEDIA)
Culture is infrastructure: insights from the Marrakech Partnership Accelerator
“As a source of exchange, innovation and creativity, cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature. In this sense, it is the common heritage of humanity and should be recognized and affirmed for the benefit of present and future generations.” - Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (Article 1)
Two weeks ago in Marrakech, months of global consultation came together in the co-creation of the first draft of the Culture Global Stocktake for Climate Action (CGST).
The Culture Global Stocktake is a decentralised, participatory process spearheaded by the Entertainment + Culture Pavilion, with support from the Youth Climate Justice Fund. Following months of global consultation, the Marrakech Partnership Accelerator brought delegates together to co-create the first draft.
More than 50 delegates from across regions, sectors and knowledge systems gathered for an intensive week of drafting, working in dialogue with the COP30 Presidency and the UNFCCC Secretariat. Artivists, cultural practitioners, Indigenous knowledge holders, researchers and climate actors worked together to advance a clear position: culture must sit as a foundational, cross-cutting dimension of climate action, not as a side conversation.
Representing Creative Climate, and in aligned roles with Global Artivisms (Council) and the Centre for Reworlding, Jen Rae participated as part of the core writing committee and was the only delegate from the Pacific Basin. Participation was made possible through the support of Global Artivisms. Contributions spanned mitigation, adaptation, finance and capacity building, with a focus on how cultural systems shape values, governance, behaviour and long-term adaptation, and how these must be embedded within policy frameworks.
Jen Rae’s contribution focused on strengthening the conditions for meaningful participation of cultural practitioners, Indigenous knowledge holders and communities in climate processes, with attention to transdisciplinary and transcultural collaboration, governance, cultural rights and equitable resourcing.
This work is grounded in lived conditions. For many in the room, attending required navigating real uncertainty and risk, including the impacts of ongoing conflict. The act of gathering under these conditions matters. It speaks to what culture holds: the capacity to sustain connection, carry knowledge across disruption, and continue building collective responses when systems are under strain.
“Culture as diverse systems of meaning, values, artistic expression, knowledges and practices through which societies interpret, inhabit and respond to the world, expressed and sustained through cultural ecosystems and transmitted through generations, as well as enabling infrastructures, constituting economic activities, producing and distributing cultural goods and services without encompassing the totality of culture itself. Further noting this distinction avoids reducing culture to an economic sector and instead positions it as a foundational dimension shaping climate action.” – Cultural Global Stocktake (Article 2, first draft, March 2026)
There is a shift underway. Culture is not a communications layer for climate action. It is infrastructure, where diverse practices are prioritised over homogenised or mediated narratives, and where public value is prioritised over market value shaping how societies understand risk, how knowledge is carried across generations, and how change is enacted.
The Culture Global Stocktake will continue to develop, with Draft 2 to be presented at the UNFCCC sessions in Bonn (SB64), with further work feeding into COP31. Jen Rae’s ongoing involvement in this process, including anticipated engagement around COP31, is supported by the British Council.
The aim is to present Draft 2 at SB64 in Bonn this June. Until then, you are invited to engage directly with the work. Read the draft. Share your insights. Circulate it through your networks. This process depends on collective input to ensure culture is embedded as a structural condition within climate frameworks, not left at the margins.
Access the first draft and contribute here: https://www.cultureglobalstocktake.com/
If you are interested in staying informed about the 2nd draft consultation of the Cultural Global Stocktake, please fill in this form. Once more details are confirmed, we will get in touch.