• by Oritro Karim (united nations)
• Friday, August 15, 2025
• Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, August 15 (IPS) - In the 1900s, global discussions around climate change and fossil fuel usage reached new heights, leading to the emergence of climate change art. Since then, it has remained a key theme in contemporary art, with artists and corporations alike continuing to push messages of climate reform to instill a sense of urgency, fear, and shared responsibility in viewers.

The climate crisis has severely escalated over the past few years, with 2024 and 2025 being marked by brutal natural disasters, environmental decay, and significant losses of human life around the world. Despite the vast amount of climate change data released since the 1970s, a significant portion of the world still denies the existence of climate change, particularly in the United States.

Oftentimes, the general public struggles to understand the scope of scientific and political developments due to their complexity or inaccessibility. Data surrounding the acceleration of the climate crisis is often rooted in complex terminology and shrouded by significant amounts of mis- and dis-information on popular social media platforms.

Historically, artists have relied on visual arts to convey messages to their audience, using tools such as symbolism, composition, and color to evoke specific emotions or draw attention to certain world issues. Many works in the climate change art movement use these tools to depict the destructive impact of human activity on the environment, the disproportionate effects on marginalized communities, and the growing threat of human extinction.

“UNESCO sees art as an essential means to turn complex climate science into messages that people can understand and feel. Facts alone often do not change minds — artists can inspire reflection, urgency, and action,” a spokesperson for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said to IPS.

“UNESCO supports artists and cultural initiatives across the globe, helping strengthen creative sectors and link culture to sustainable development. Through the International Fund for Cultural Diversity, UNESCO funds projects in the Global South that build cultural capacity and often engage communities on climate issues through local art and expression. The Policy Monitoring Platform tracks how governments integrate environmental themes into cultural policy, showing how artists use visual arts, theatre, festivals, and design to promote climate awareness and sustainable lifestyles”.

Large-Scale Impact Projects

One such project is Scaling Urban Nature-based Solutions for Climate Adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SUNCASA), a three-year project driven by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) that aims to empower marginalized communities, promote sustainable practices, and find environment-based solutions to benefit over 2.2 million people living in high-risk communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

On June 10, SUNCASA unveiled its transformative, new art project at the Nature, Climate, and Gender Symposium. The Litter Traps and Art Project, based in the Alexandra township of Johannesburg, South Africa, creates interactive art installations that act as tools to reduce flooding, clean up solid waste from rivers, strengthen biodiversity, and foster new conversations surrounding climate action.

“We’ve turned the detritus of urban life into guardians of the river,” said Hannelie Coetzee, an environment scientist and the lead artist on the project. “Each trap speaks to what has been discarded — physically and socially — and transforms it into a symbol of care. Art is not an add-on here; it is central to ecological restoration.”

David van Niekerk, CEO of the Johannesburg Inner City Partnership (JICP), noted that this installation stands out for its involvement from the local community and its role as an educational resource for both tourists and locals. Being more than just an aesthetic feature of the township, the installation symbolizes the importance of community-centered approaches, as well as sustainability and environmental protection.

In 2023, the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM), the nonprofit arts organization Julie’s Bicycle, the Gallery Climate Coalition, and ART 2030 established the Art Charter for Climate Action (ACCA) in an effort to recognize the transformative role of visual art in the fight against the climate crisis.

ACCA currently contains over 1,000 members from 70 countries, including partners from museums, corporations, and nonprofit groups, as well as contemporary artists and arts sector stakeholders. In 2024, Julie’s Bicycle announced that ACCA would collaborate with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), aiming to achieve global net zero emissions by 2030.

“In order to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, it is essential that all sectors take transformative climate action now,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell. “In addition to reducing its global emissions, arts and culture play a critical role in inspiring people to imagine and realise a low carbon, just and climate-resilient future.”

The Individual Level

An IPS correspondent spoke with local artists in New York City that incorporate messages of climate reform and sustainability through their work. Among them is Oriel Ceballos, also known as OR1EL, a mixed-media artist based in Brooklyn.
“Throughout history, art has helped humanity bring greater attention to issues like colonialism, racism, police brutality, gender inequality, climate change, militarism, the prison industrial complex, poverty, global hunger, homelessness, and many others that plague our existence. Without the voice of artists, it is difficult to amplify issues and mobilize people. That’s why all art forms are crucial in raising important issues that impact people,” said Cellabos.

OR1EL elaborated on his artistic approach when addressing climate issues, stating that his recent pieces employ language and a minimal use of color to emphasize advocacy messages of advocacy. “I am known for doing pieces with figures wearing gas masks to highlight air pollution. In my work, you can see pieces where I address how factories or urban life destroys nature. Other works depict the juxtaposition between urban life and a life more in harmony with nature,” he said.

Juno Lam is an illustrator and collagist who advocates for sustainability by repurposing found objects and scraps to reimagine the world using man-made materials. “My work with collage is a response to climate change with the ephemera I find. Right now, we are considered to be living in the Anthropocene era, a time where humans are really a defining force on Earth,” Lam told IPS.

Lam continued: “One thing I feel we can take for granted is really being able to use everything you have around you. A lot of things that we use are used once and thrown away. A lot of these things end up in landfills or are incinerated, becoming trapped in our atmosphere. What would it mean to be able to give something discarded a place where it will be appreciated? To make use of a material, or item, time and time again until it breaks. The broken pieces I put together make an attempt to connect, whether it be glued or drawn together.”

IPS also spoke to Ripley Rice, a multimedia artist and sculptor who works in bio-art. Looking to evoke a sense of unease and inspire audiences to look further into science, Rice stated that bio-art can include studying biotechnology, genetic engineering, conducting surveys and research, and presenting this data in a visually striking way in an effort to spread awareness on humanity’s role in environmental degradation, and engage communities in science and ecology.

“When I make art, my goal is to create something visually interesting enough to get people to care about what I’m trying to say,” said Rice. “By engaging my audience with science and nature, I’m connecting them to the earth and trying to spark that love and fascination that I have…Something I talk about in my art a lot is humans’ impact and power over the organisms that we share this planet with.”

Rice also explained the messages of some of their newest ecology-inspired pieces, including a portrait of a deer that gazes confrontationally at a viewer, as though judging humans “for our sin of encroaching on their land”. Rice is currently working with biopolymers in the hopes of incorporating them into their newest works, as well as studying the mycelium of a fungus that stains wood blue as it digests decaying logs in forest ecosystems.

“There is a throughline of nature, biology, and power structures. We can only bring about change if we dismantle the power structures and relinquish some of our control over the Earth and its resources…If I think too hard about our destruction of nature, I feel hopeless and nihilistic. All you can do is try your hardest to shine your little light while the world gets darker and darker”.

IPS UN Bureau Report

© Inter Press Service (20250815171947) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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