Emily - "As we both know, climate change presents risks to and, in some cases, opportunities for heritage assets. Work is required to understand how we can adapt to these challenges, increasing resilience for heritage assets, wider landscapes, and society. Historic England’s Corporate Plan has a climate action priority, which specific objectives under that priority do you work towards?"

Kate – “One of Historic England’s Corporate Plan priorities is climate action. We aim to display leadership to ensure that heritage will play an important part in the fight to limit climate change impacts. Recently, my work has focused on several of our objectives under this priority, including driving the improvement and dissemination of heritage adaptation approaches and equipping heritage managers with what they need to make historic buildings and places more resilient. I also led on Historic England and the English Heritage Trust’s joint response to the Government’s Fourth Adaptation Reporting Power (ARP4) call.”

Emily – “Heritage has the potential to deliver many benefits to society. Historic landscapes and assets can improve mental and physical wellbeing, store carbon, and act as a key part of national and local responses to climate change, through re-use or adaption of existing buildings, landscapes and infrastructure. In order for heritage to provide these benefits and increase societal resilience, heritage assets and landscapes need to be well managed. What do you consider to be the biggest challenges for heritage management as the impacts of climate change increase?“

Kate – “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing society, and responding to it can feel overwhelming. I think one of the challenges facing heritage managers is understanding the risks climate change presents to heritage assets of all types and their exposure and vulnerability to that risk. There are so many sources of climate data available at different scales and based on multiple climate scenarios that it can be hard to know where to start.

A further challenge lies in planning appropriate adaptation measures for heritage sites. This includes increasing the resilience of heritage assets to climate impacts, establishing how our historic environment can contribute more broadly to the resilience of places and communities, and also, where necessary, the management of climate-driven loss.

The projects that JBA has produced for Historic England have started to pull together information on climate data and research to inform Historic England guidance on heritage climate change risk assessments and adaptation planning for managers working across different spatial scales and levels of expertise. All of our climate change advice and resources can be found on the climate change hub on our website."

Emily - "We’ve been seeking to address some of these challenges through the projects we’ve worked on with you. The first project we worked on was the Climate Change and Heritage Research Review. This project undertook a review of recent and current research activity around the threats and risks to heritage, both from climate change itself and from our responses to climate change. The review aimed to identify key actors in the field and identify strengths and gaps in the research landscape to inform future research commissions by Historic England. How has that influenced Historic England’s approach?"

Kate – “The Research Review will support future funding of research commissions by Historic England, ensuring research is well targeted to the needs of the field. It will allow us to prioritise our research, avoid duplication and make connections across the sector. We are also using the results of the Research Review to inform the development of a future research agenda, which we are working on with partners across the heritage sector.”

Emily - "We’ve partnered with you on two projects now, which support heritage managers. The first was the Identification of Climate Hazard and Climate Change Adaptation Resources project, which identified and reviewed climate hazard and climate change adaptation resources, collating them into a database for use by heritage managers. The Workflows and Hazard Data for Climate Change Risk Assessment of Heritage Assets project built on this. We worked with Historic England and English Heritage Trust to create a three-tiered workflow method for climate change risk assessment of heritage assets. The project also updated the hazard database from the first project and identified which data sources are relevant for use to better understand each climate hazard. This report has recently been published online as part of Historic England’s Research Report Series (32/2025)."

Kate – “These projects responded to an identified need to better understand climate risks to heritage assets and aim to provide stakeholders with tools and information to inform their responses to climate change. We can build on these to create more detailed guidance in the future.

The Identification of Climate Hazard and Adaptation Resources project created a resource which can be drawn on by Historic England and heritage managers alike. It accompanies a sector Climate Hazard Vocabulary, which sets out some definitions of key climate risk terms and hazards for heritage managers.

The Workflows and Hazard Data project has created an outline CCRA method and recommendations for how to develop the method into guidance for heritage managers. This work has provided a valuable resource for those working to adapt heritage assets to climate change and ensure they form part of a resilient wider landscape."

Emily - "All of the projects we’ve worked on with you required a significant amount of stakeholder engagement. Why do you think it’s important, specifically for matters relating to heritage, to engage with stakeholders when considering climate adaptation?"

Kate – “It is important that we understand the needs of heritage managers and the challenges they face before undertaking research and creating guidance to support them. We want to ensure we’re considering different viewpoints, levels of expertise and resources, and hearing from experts in the field to ensure that the outputs of these projects and future work are relevant and usable. Engaging stakeholders is crucial for securing support from heritage managers, as the role of our historic environment in climate adaptation depends on the actions of the owners and managers of these sites.”