TV and climate action

We’re in a climate emergency driven in large part by Greenhouse Gas emissions, predominantly carbon. Every part of society has a role to play in decarbonising our planet and getting us to net zero as soon as possible, and that includes media. TV – both its programmes and advertising – has a special role to play.

TV has unparalleled socio-cultural influence and this can be used to encourage more sustainable behaviours. TV normalises things, it shifts perceptions and attitudes. It’s a powerful, emotional form of communication with a long history of being a force for social good in a huge number of areas, be that getting justice for wronged Post Office workers (ITV’s ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office’), encouraging a record number of HIV tests (Channel 4’s ‘It’s a Sin’), or turbo-charging the take up of women’s football (Sky, ITV, and BBC coverage).

There’s a huge amount happening across TV to help tackle the climate emergency. All broadcasters have science-based net zero strategies and they are actively decarbonising their operations and value chains, future proofing their businesses and accelerating the transition to net zero.

Below is an overview of the many ways in which TV is adapting, and helping society adapt, to the climate emergency…

What’s changing on screen?

All the TV companies in the UK are part of the albert initiative, founded in 2011 by the TV and film industries to tackle their environmental impact and encourage their audiences to act for a sustainable future. As part of their commitment to albert, the TV companies have worked hard to dramatically reduce the carbon emissions of their productions. Most productions now meet albert’s sustainable production standards.

The Climate Content Pledge

At COP26, through albert, all the UK’s TV companies made the Climate Content Pledge, committing to embed climate stories across all genres — from dramas and soaps to quiz shows — meeting audiences where they are.

The broadcasters have agreed to implement standardized sustainability reporting for all content. Starting in 2025, all commissioned programs will include on-screen sustainability tracking forms during post-production to measure the presence and impact of climate-related themes.

The Pledge is about harnessing the power of TV to influence and inspire society’s behaviour – and not just doing it in obvious places like natural history shows. From soaps to comedy to quiz shows to dramas, climate storytelling will figure larger than before.

Click here to view the cross-broadcaster showreel of climate-related content from BAFTA albert.

Climate-related TV shows

Examples of how TV’s shows are tackling the climate emergency include Channel 4’s Climate Season, which was a result of the broadcaster’s call out to the independent production sector to make shows that explore solutions to climate change. Shows included ‘The Big Climate Fight’ and ‘Chris Packham: Is it time to break the law?’

ITV’s Coronation Street and Emmerdale feature sustainable behaviours as part of the everyday actions of the characters (e.g. using reusable coffee cups and shopping bags, conversations around meat-free diets, taking public transport, buying locally sourced food). A recent example is The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and Emmerdale recently partnering for a campaign to promote heat pumps.

Sky News launched The Daily Climate Show in 2021 and Sky Sports teams weave climate stories into their coverage, from weather and air quality affecting athletes’ performance to sustainable clothing for presenters.

TV advertising and climate action

The Sky Zero Footprint Fund offers £2 million a year in advertising support to amplify brands and organisations leading the way in sustainability. It recently expanded to a new three-category structure to broaden impact across startups, charities, and major brands. Previous winners include Grub Club, Milliways, Ocean Bottle, OceanSaver, and UpCircle.

Channel 4 is partnering with Certified B Corporations (B Corps) giving them a chance to win free advertising airtime. Five B Corps will win airtime worth £120k each.

As a result of ITV’s Love Island and eBay’s pre-loved fashion partnership, 2.7 million people shopped more sustainably – a partnership that won the 2023 Grand Prix at the Ad Net Zero Awards.

Channel 4 and pre-loved fashion platform Vinted have joined forces to create short-form digital series and complementary TV ad campaigns. Second Hand Style-Up surprised guests eager for a makeover by taking the anticipated profits of selling their clothes on Vinted to purchase only second-hand outfits instead. Second Hand Showdown gave guests fresh looks using only second-hand fashion - after trying on all the outfits, each guest could choose one stylist’s collection to keep, the other wardrobe was relisted on Vinted so all items found new homes. It saw a 90% increase in consideration of Vinted.

UKTV’s Everyday Sustainability campaign dedicated £1 million worth of its own airtime to encourage viewers to make more sustainable lifestyle choices. In the first year of the initiative, UKTV tackled food waste, working with international climate action NGO WRAP and their campaign brand.

Other examples climate-conscious commercial activity include Tenzing taking advantage of Channel 4’s Greenhouse fund to get on TV and inform the UK public about their environmentally friendly drink; Nationwide and ITV teaming up to help people decarbonise their homes; Sky’s Ocean Rescue campaign to drive awareness of plastic pollution, which has reached nearly 48 million across Europe; EDF’s campaign on TV and other media to show how the company can help drivers reduce emissions whilst they sleep – by charging their cars overnight with zero-carbon electricity; and ITV bringing together four of the nation's favourite brands(Volkswagen, Sainsbury's, Inch's Cider and Ribena) for a special ‘Green Scene’ ad-break takeover to mark World Environment Day with the brands unveiling sustainability pledges they have made to help the environment.

You can watch a gallery of climate-related TV advertising from the UK here.

Transforming TV companies

From Sky Zero to Channel 4’s Sustainability Roadmap, ITV’s Climate Transition Plan, or UKTV’s Green Team, the commercial TV companies all have wide-ranging climate action initiatives.

Sustainability – with decarbonisation a central pillar – is a fundamental part of the TV companies’ corporate strategies and they are holding themselves publicly accountable for their progress, setting science-based targets.

There are many ways in which they are acting to achieve this, operationally and in terms of making TV, such as: transitioning to renewable energy, improving energy efficiency, employing sustainable production practices, committing to green procurement, reducing travel, reducing wastage, staff climate training, and investing in lower carbon technologies.

AI innovations also offer potential carbon efficiency gains and broadcasters are factoring AI into their operations and net zero strategies with a focus on using it to cut emissions, not add to them. AI can reduce emissions through streamlining production – for example virtual or remote production reducing the need for travel, locations shoots, and physical production. Sky’s A League of Their Won reduced emissions by 47% thanks to virtual/remote production. AI can also optimise content delivery and enable even smarter TV planning and targeting.

All the TV companies – and Thinkbox – are also supporters of Ad Net Zero and are committed to becoming net-zero carbon organisations by 2050 at the very latest – with ambitious targets before then.