Marketing and Event Consultant to Project Manage Events across Wales for Culture and Climate Cymru

SECTION 1: BACKGROUND AND SPECIFICATION 1 Overview and Context 1.1 The National Library of Wales 1.2 The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth is one of six legal deposit libraries in Britain and Ireland. Since 1911 it has enjoyed the right to collect, free of charge, a copy of every printed work published in Britain and Ireland.

In addition, it collects works about Wales and the other Celtic countries: books and pamphlets, magazines and newspapers, microforms, ephemera, and a wealth of electronic material. 1.3 The Library was founded by Royal Charter in 1907 and is one of the great achievements of the cultural aspirations of the Welsh nation. The Library is primarily funded by the Welsh Government (it is a Welsh Government Sponsored Body).

The Library is unusual for a national library in that it strives to collect, preserve, and share collections in a variety of different media, including one of the largest collections of printed newspapers and journals relating to Wales, the Welsh and Celtic peoples. 1.4 The National Library is not only a library. It collects manuscripts and archives, pictures and photographs, maps, sound recordings and moving images, all of which are available for people to consult in the Library, and increasingly online. 1.5 With financial support from Welsh Government, the National Library of Wales is working towards becoming carbon neutral by 2028 with the aim of completely eliminating gas use and reducing carbon emissions.

The Library has recently transformed its historic estate through an ambitious retrofit programme that significantly reduces its carbon footprint while securing a more sustainable future. Wanting to share this learning with others, the Library has set a goal to become a leading organisation in environmental sustainability in our 2025-30 Strategy, Connecting Wales and the World. 1.6 Climate Action Programme and Culture and Climate Cymru 1.7 The culture sector in Wales has an important role to play in tackling the climate and nature emergencies, because culture has a unique ability to inspire, connect, share stories, and help us to imagine different futures.

The culture sector also needs to manage the impact of a changing climate on cultural and heritage assets and the historic environment, and play its part in becoming net zero, nature friendly and supporting climate justice. 1.8 Working in partnership with Welsh Government, the National Library of Wales (the Library) are leading on a high profile and cross-cutting Climate Action Programme that works across three policy areas – culture, arts and the historic environment (Cadw). The programme supports delivery of Ambition 16 of the (previous) Welsh Government’s Priorities for Culture, which is for the culture sector to demonstrate “leadership and collaboration in its approaches to sustainable development, building resilience, and tackling the climate and nature emergencies”, through delivery of a series of strategic projects and sector development initiatives in support of priorities outlined in the Programme for Government 2021-2026, Priorities for Culture, Wellbeing of Future Generations Act and the Culture sector: climate and nature emergencies report. 1.9 The recommendations of the research report include the establishment of a sectoral peer network to focus on climate and nature in the culture sector in Wales.

In response to this, the Library has created the Diwylliant a Hinsawdd Cymru | Culture and Climate Cymru network, which has to date delivered three sessions with a total of 192 attendees. The network is supported by a newly launched website, which includes a newsletter and online discussion forum.

Delivery of this work is led by the Library’s Climate Action Programme Lead. 1.10 We are looking to deliver a further 5 in-person network events (2 in 2026-27 and 3 in 2027-28) across Wales between September 2026 and March 2028. These events will be held at regular intervals under the Culture and Climate Cymru brand, an