2020

The 20th High-Level Meeting on “Climate Change and Its Impact on the Life and Cultural Heritage of the Mediterranean,” organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center and the Marianna Vardinoyannis Foundation, was held on 21–22 January at the Acropolis Museum Amphitheatre and the Athens Plaza. The event took place under the Patronage of the President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopios Pavlopoulos, who opened the meeting with remarks highlighting the urgent need to protect cultural heritage amid accelerating climate challenges.

The gathering brought together more than 70 leaders, policymakers, and academics from across the Mediterranean region. Discussions focused on the growing threats of climate change to cultural heritage, regional environmental risks, climate management instruments, and the implementation of global sustainability commitments. Experts emphasized that the Mediterranean is warming faster than the global average, putting both ecosystems and millennia-old historical sites at heightened risk.

Participants underlined the importance of coordinated action, including reducing carbon emissions, restricting single-use plastics, ending subsidies for polluting industries, and investing in sustainable urban infrastructure. Azerbaijan’s First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva’s initiative of planting 650,000 trees in one day in Baku was cited as an example of impactful environmental action that enhances green spaces and public awareness.

On 22 January, a special conference titled “The Many and the Few: Multitude and Virtue” was held at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens to commemorate the 2500th anniversary of the Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis.

Within the framework of the High-Level Meeting, the Nizami Ganjavi International Award was presented to Former President of Greece Prokopios Pavlopoulos for his significant contributions to the protection of cultural heritage from climate impacts and for his broader engagement on climate issues. The award was handed over by NGIC Co-Chair Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga. In his speech, Pavlopoulos noted that NGIC’s conclusions would serve as a valuable guide for shaping Greece’s cultural policy, emphasizing that safeguarding the shared cultural heritage of the Mediterranean is a collective mission that fosters dialogue and peaceful coexistence among nations.