Putting Culture at the Heart of the Climate Response
Helping arts and cultural organisations and leaders integrate climate and ecological responsibility holistically across their work, governance and strategy at a moment when the stakes could not be higher.
Led by Rose Goddard
About Rose
Rose Goddard is one of the cultural sector's most prominent voices at the intersection of arts leadership, climate action and cultural philanthropy. Currently Director of the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation, she leads advocacy for new approaches to cultural funding and its role in tackling the climate crisis – including convening funders around climate philanthropy and research with Wellcome and Climate Outreach into cultural climate content. Rose speaks regularly at sector events on culture, climate and philanthropy, including at the Warburg Institute, the British Academy, Net Zero conference and with Achates and Climate Outreach.
Rose co-founded the Climate Fiction Prize, the UK's major literary prize celebrating novels tackling the climate crisis, now in its third year. The Prize reflects her conviction that storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have for building public understanding and emotional engagement with the planetary emergency.
With a career spanning leadership roles at Wimbledon BookFest, the Women's Prize Trust, culture sector consultancy Achates and national charity The Reading Agency, Rose began her career in editorial publishing at Penguin Random House and Oxford University Press. She has raised funds from Arts Council England, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Linbury Trust and various corporates and individuals, and has worked with organisations including Soho Theatre, Forward Arts Foundation, National Centre for Writing and Artsadmin.
Recent Clients & Projects
I co-founded the Climate Fiction Prize, the UK's major literary prize celebrating novels tackling the climate crisis, now in its third year.
I chair the advisory group for Pollinate, a new organisation developing musical theatre focused on climate and nature.
I led a research project for the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation with Wellcome and Climate Outreach, looking into British attitudes to the climate crisis and cultural consumption. The findings, published in January 2026 showed that audiences across society want and expect climate to be addressed in what they watch, visit and enjoy, and that most would welcome more climate content in culture.
Why this work, why now?
The Context
The climate emergency is accelerating: extreme weather events are intensifying, tipping points are being reached sooner than projected, and the window for meaningful action is narrowing. In May 2026 the Climate Change Committee reported that by 2050, summers hitting 40 to 45 degrees are predicted to be the "new normal" in Britain. And yet the crisis remains, for many, strangely abstract. The facts are available to anyone; what's missing is not information but feeling and understanding. We need broader transmission of the stories, images and lived experiences that allow us to understand what is at stake and to imagine how things might be different. This is the territory that arts and culture occupies.
My conviction is that cultural organisations are not peripheral to the climate response but central to it. The soft power of the creative sector – its ability to reach hearts and minds, shape public narratives, hold difficult conversations across communities and inspire action – is a chronically underused asset. Cultural audiences come to feel, imagine and be changed. And yet, for most of the past decade, the culture sector's response to the climate emergency has turned inward, focused on carbon audits, sustainability targets and mitigation. While these things matter, they are not enough.
My Work
I support arts and cultural organisations and individual cultural leaders to integrate climate and ecological responsibility holistically – across their work, governance and public voice – strengthening relevance, resilience and leadership at a moment of profound change. My work focuses on helping organisations and individuals move from the margins of the climate conversation to its centre, not by compromising their artistic or organisational identity, but by deepening it.
The organisations and individuals I work with are beginning to ask different more important questions: not just how do we reduce our harm, but what is our role and how can we lead?
What can a theatre, a museum, a literary festival, a music venue do that no policy paper or scientific report can do?
How do we as artists and creative professionals use the trust our audiences place in us to help them engage with the biggest crisis of their lifetimes?
How do we embed climate responsibility in ways that feel coherent, values-led and genuinely connected to our audiences, funders and mission?
These are the questions my work is built around and which I actively seek to address with my clients.
The Evidence
These aren’t only my own personal convictions but sentiments increasingly backed up by a growing body of evidence. Research by the organisation I lead, the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation, in partnership with Wellcome and Climate Outreach (published January 2026) shows that UK audiences across society want and expect climate to be addressed in what they watch, visit and enjoy. Most would welcome more climate content in culture, particularly content focused on solutions, community action and local impact.
Indigo's 2024 Act Green survey of 17,450 cultural audience members found that 86% are worried about the climate crisis, 72% believe cultural organisations have a responsibility to influence society on the emergency, yet only 16% think those organisations are currently rising to that role.
In May 2026, the World Health Organisation and Jameel Arts & Health Lab published a policy brief calling for urgent integration of arts and culture into climate-health responses, with 79 global experts identifying artists and cultural organisations as essential partners in this work. Taken together, this research points to the gap between what audiences need, what the evidence recommends, and what the sector is currently delivering.
Work with Me
I work with arts and cultural organisations and individuals at every stage of their climate response, from initial conversations and mapping to long-term strategic change. My approach is built around a framework that spans the full breadth of an organisation’s or individual’s work, from artistic practice to governance, communications and audience engagement. My goal is to support you towards a model of working where your environmental response doesn't just focus on mitigating harm but actively creates positive impact, shapes public narratives and mobilises audiences toward climate justice.
Support is tailored to each organisation's context, size and stage. Typical engagements include:
Leadership & Board Workshops
Half-day or full-day sessions for senior teams and trustees, auditing the organisations’ current work and strategy, surfacing opportunities for climate responses and establishing collective ownership of the organisation’s environmental agenda.
Suitable for: arts and culture organisations beginning to build board and leadership alignment on climate.*
Artistic Commissioning Support
Drawing on my experience with the Climate Fiction Prize and research on what climate content cultural audiences want to see, I can advise on what to commission, who to platform and how to frame climate work.
Suitable for: individual producers, festivals, literary organisations, producing theatres wishing to begin or continue commissioning climate-related work.*
Climate-aligned Fundraising Strategy
Reviewing existing funding relationships and policies and developing clear climate-aligned fundraising strategies. Drawing on deep knowledge of the UK's major arts and climate funders to draft and support funding bids and advise on relationships with trusts, corporates and individuals.
Suitable for: organisations with corporate or trust relationships they're uncertain about, or development teams building a climate-related funding pipeline for the first time.*
Audience Engagement
Which climate issues matter most to your audiences, and what problems are they facing locally? Whether air quality, crop failures, heating seas or the physical and mental health impacts of a changing climate – whatever your community is concerned about, we can work together to understand how your organisation can respond.
Suitable for: arts and culture organisations whose audiences are experiencing climate impacts.*
I also regularly speak and chair at sector events across culture, climate and philanthropy; recent engagements include the Warburg Institute, the British Academy, Achates and Climate Outreach, and I am currently (June 2026) planning an event for London Climate Action Week on publishing's role in the climate. I am available for speaking, chairing and event curation.
*Day rates and project fees are available on request and are always discussed transparently before any work begins. Reduced rates are available for smaller organisations and those with limited reserves.
Get in Touch
I'd love to hear from you. Whether you have a specific project in mind or are just beginning to think about your or your organisation’s climate response, feel free to get in touch or book a free discovery call below.