Climate Emergency

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According to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, climate change is now “one of the most significant threats to World Heritage properties, potentially impacting their Outstanding Universal Value, including their integrity and authenticity, and their potential for economic and social development at the local level.”

Edinburgh World Heritage has created a Climate Emergency Strategy to identify and address the challenges posed by climate change and a Climate Emergency Grant to fund targeted energy efficiency and climate change adaptation work in the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site.

Follow the links below to learn more about our Climate Emergency Strategy and to apply for our Climate Emergency Grant.

The Climate Emergency Strategy

Building on fifteen years of innovative projects in relation to energy efficiency and sustainability in the context of the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site, Edinburgh World Heritage adopted its first Climate Emergency strategy in June 2020.

The strategy’s objective is to address the new challenges posed by climate change by testing and defining best practices in relation to sensitive climate change adaptation and mitigation while sustaining the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage Site and enhancing residents’ quality of life.

We are currently focusing on two challenges:

increasing the resilience of the World Heritage Site against current and future impacts of climate change – such as flooding, overheating or inappropriate actions in response to climate change that would damage the character of the World Heritage Site
facilitating a sensitive transition towards net-zero in the World Heritage Site, which includes the reduction of carbon emissions in historic buildings

The EWH Climate Emergency Manifesto

In September 2020, Edinburgh World Heritage published a manifesto which proposes key principles to address these challenges while stressing the importance of preserving the ‘heritage values’ of the Old and New Towns World Heritage Site.

Our climate manifesto calls for the historic environment to be at the heart of the city’s response to the climate emergency through a 10-point programme aimed at policymakers, experts and residents.

Published against a backdrop of changing weather patterns, the manifesto points out ways in which Edinburgh’s traditional buildings – such as tenements, houses, shops and public buildings – can be sensitively improved to reduce energy consumption and better adapt.

History as a Asset

The historic environment and our traditional buildings are part of the solution to effectively dealing with the climate emergency.

The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site is of unique value not only to Scotland, but also to the world, and comprises nearly 4,500 individual buildings, 75% of which are listed. As we work to address the challenges of the climate emergency, this extraordinary heritage asset must be taken into account, and indeed become part of the solution. We believe that through regular maintenance, high quality conservation, and the implementation of sensitive energy efficiency and adaptation measures, Edinburgh’s historic environment can be at the heart of the city’s plans to address the challenge of climate change.

Climate Action as a Catalyst

Many of the measures that will be taken to address the climate emergency are also an opportunity to strengthen the conservation, understanding and appreciation of Old & New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site.

Actions taken to help address the climate emergency will, if properly planned and executed, also result in our traditional buildings being better maintained and able to meet the demands of a changing climate. The drive for greater energy efficiency in homes, shops and other buildings should also make living in heritage areas more affordable and therefore more attractive to a wider range of people.

Additionally, the new focus on traffic reduction and tackling air pollution, together with improving infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians, will make our World Heritage Site a more enjoyable and inspiring place to live, work, study and visit.

Inherent Sustainability

The historic environment and our traditional buildings are inherently sustainable.

The traditional buildings in Edinburgh were constructed using mainly natural local materials, such as Craigleith sandstone, Scots slate, lime and iron, and are well adapted to local weather conditions.

These structures also represent a significant volume of embodied carbon, in terms of both the materials used, and energy expended in their construction. The continued use and adaptive re-use of our traditional buildings is testament to their inherent flexibility and desirability, as well as the simplicity of their repair and maintenance which in turn benefits our local economy through the employment of people engaged in traditional building trades.

Embracing Limitations

Replacing traditional buildings with new ones is generally both wasteful and unsustainable.

New buildings require decades to offset the carbon emissions produced during their construction. This can be demonstrated by using a ‘whole life’ carbon assessment methodology rather than one just based on operational efficiency.

Given the need to cut carbon emissions immediately, replacing traditional buildings with new structures makes no sense from a carbon reduction point of view. In fact, justifying this practice based on environmental factors is often ‘greenwashing’ and obscures the real economic factors influencing new development. Demolition is also wasteful and often leads to the discarding of valuable traditional materials.

Mitigating Climate Change

Regular maintenance of traditional buildings can both mitigate the effects of a changing climate and improve energy efficiency.

Poorly maintained buildings are extremely vulnerable to extremes of weather. Good maintenance is therefore the first essential step in preparing a traditional building for a changing climate. Additionally, buildings which are well maintained, and therefore wind and water-tight, are also more energy efficient.

Energy Efficiency

Sensitive interventions proven to improve the energy efficiency of traditional buildings are an effective way to reduce carbon emissions.

Working with traditional buildings to develop sensitive energy efficiency solutions based on an understanding of their technical construction, historical significance and cultural value is, in most cases, the best way to deal with the challenges of the climate emergency within the traditional building sector.

This approach puts the original fabric of the building first to ensure the building is functioning as it was intended before any interventions are considered, each of which need to be justified on the basis of technical knowledge relevant to our local environment. This approach also considers the whole building from attic insulation and draughtproofing to improvements in the efficiency of heating and lighting systems. If this approach is followed, retrofitting and upgrading existing buildings will generate far fewer carbon emissions versus demolition and new build.

Technical Solutions

Technical solutions designed for modern buildings can be inappropriate for traditional structures and can even cause harm and reduce the building’s efficiency

Modern buildings are designed in a fundamentally different way to traditional houses, tenements and public buildings.

For example, traditional buildings are designed to be breathable and allow moisture to escape versus new builds which are often designed to be fully sealed.

Inappropriate interventions, such as the use of impermeable insulating materials, can trap moisture and lead to mould growth, and therefore sometimes damage traditional buildings and lead to unintended consequences.

Green Spaces

Our public realm and green spaces are an integral part of the design of our historic city and can play an important role in our response to the climate emergency. Their unique character should be preserved when new interventions are proposed.

Edinburgh is one of Europe’s greenest cities, with an abundance of parks and gardens, as well as well designed areas of streetscape and public realm, all of which are key aspects of our World Heritage Site listing.

These common areas can also play an important role in our response to the climate emergency through for example enhancing effective drainage, sustaining biodiversity, limiting any ‘heat island’ effect in the city, and encouraging active travel by foot or bike.

However, changes to the public real must take into account its unique character and heritage value.

Community Participation

Local communities and residents should be empowered and supported to play an active role in delivering solutions to tackle climate change.

The conservation of Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns and its subsequent World Heritage listing could not have been achieved without the active participation, enthusiasm and commitment of its residents.

As the city faces this next great challenge, local communities need to be informed and empowered once again so that appropriate solutions are implemented with the support of our resident population.

Adopting Best Practice

Proposed changes to our traditional buildings and public realm, must be based on conservation best practice and adapted to Edinburgh’s unique historic environment. Fully understanding the significance of the historic environment can help unlock the potential for such change.

An evidence-based approach is crucial if we are to effectively respond to the challenges of the climate emergency while preserving the unique value of our heritage. While much work has been done in this area, further exemplar projects should be funded and executed which take into account our unique local context and which could be quickly expanded at scale across the city.

FuturHist

FuturHist is a research project co-funded by the European Union under its Horizon Europe research programme and UK Research and Innovation. It stands for ‘an integrated typology-based approach to guide the future development of European historic buildings towards a clean energy transition’.

FuturHist aims to develop replicable retrofit solutions for historic buildings of the future whilst preserving their cultural significance. The project’s goal is to shift the focus from individual buildings to building typologies. As such, it will develop tailored intervention approaches that can be standardised and replicated in all buildings of the given typology with minor modifications. The overall ambition is to accelerate the sensitive retrofit of the historic building stock across Europe.

The project started in January 2024 and will last 4 years, until December 2027. It is implemented by a consortium of 18 partners across the whole Europe (Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, UK), coming from various backgrounds: research institute, universities, architectural practices, SMEs, NGOs, local authorities, heritage organisations (ICOMOS, INTBAU).

Project tasks

The project’s tasks include:

Developing and testing a multidimensional decision-making methodology and a decision support system, structured as a step-by-step toolkit, to be integrated into the design process of historic building renovation
Developing innovative solutions such as bio-based materials, internal insulation systems, window retrofits, HVAC, and RES integration for historic buildings
Testing the toolkit and implementation of the innovative solutions in real-life ‘Demonstration Cases’ in Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK

More information can be found here.

How EWH will contribute

EWH will contribute to several Work Packages (WP), lead Work Package 6 ‘Scale Up’ and facilitate the implementation of the 2 UK ‘Demonstration Cases’. WP6 aim is to ensure that project results and research outputs can generate impact, covering 3 themes associated with targeted audiences: adaptation and transferability of FuturHist typology approach to achieve replicability to support public/private decision makers; policy proposals and heritage authorities’ knowledge transfer for policy makers; and management of the project’s technological results targeting technology suppliers.

UK’s ‘Demonstration Cases’ aim and objectives

The 2 UK’s ‘Demonstration Cases’ aim to test and showcase an innovative product (self-healing lime render), technical solution(s) (historic window retrofit) and strategies (passive ventilation) in the context of two historic buildings located in Edinburgh:

Scottish Veterans Residences lodge – testing an innovative external lime render product with enhanced self-healing properties and potentially improved thermal performance s
Lister Housing Co-operative flat – retrofitting historic windows and implementing passive ventilation strategies. Watch our colleague explain our work in Lister in this video.

These products, solutions and strategies will be developed during the FuturHist project by project partners and will then be tested in these two buildings. Their performance will be assessed through technical/social monitoring of the buildings that will take place before and after the works.