EXCLUSIVE: With COP29 underway, a host of UK broadcasters have agreed on a method to measure the climate change impact of their on-screen content. It means a raft of data will be gathered from early 2025.
The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the United Nation’s annual climate change gathering. The current edition is in Baku, Azerbaijan. As the event opened yesterday, the UN said that 2024 will be the hottest year on record.
The latest TV industry development follows the signing of a Climate Content Pledge at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. That saw broadcasters make six key pledges including creating “content that helps everyone understand and navigate the path to net zero” and ensuring “these efforts are informed by the science.”
The new commitment, which will be unveiled later today against the backdrop of COP29, means a reporting system will be introduced to gather data from all programs commissioned by the participating broadcasters: the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, ITV, Sky and UKTV.
“It is really significant because it will be the basis for so much more reporting,” Catherine Ellis, the first Head of Climate Content at Bafta’s sustainability org albert, told Deadline. “It shows the commitment from the Climate Content Pledge signees that this continues to matter to them. For them to be able to understand the level of climate content and on-screen sustainability there is, is really powerful.”
The data will be gathered by the broadcasters and shared with BAFTA albert, which will crunch the numbers. Bafta albert already tracks and certifies the sustainability of productions, which is an entirely separate process. The new system relates to the final cut of the content itself, and the producers will submit the information to their commissioning broadcaster.
“This will allow us to have a really strong pan-industry idea of the themes, subjects, and genres that are delivering this kind of storytelling and that’s incredibly valuable,” Ellis said. “It’ll also tell us about the prominence of this content, and whether it is implicit or explicit and visual or verbal. It will be a foundation stone for understanding what impact this kind of program is making and these kind of stories can make.”
The measurement system requires producers to track their on-screen work as it relates to climate and sustainability themes. It will apply across genres and not be restricted to content that is overtly climate and sustainability-themed.
The UK industry faces severe challenges with budgets under pressure and a slowdown in commissioning. Against that backdrop, prodcos will need convincing of the requirement for additional and compulsory reporting. The broadcasters will start informing their producer partners about the new measurement system from today.
“A production is reporting this at the end of their post production paperwork, and hopefully it’s embedded within processes that they already work with in their delivery,” Ellis explained. “It’s been designed to be as streamlined as possible for production companies.”
The on-board broadcasters are from the UK and while their programming travels around the world, this remains a country-specific response to a global issue. There is potential for it to have an international dimension, Ellis said: “I think there’s loads of scope globally. It could be something that we share internationally – not necessarily the data itself, but the methodology behind it.”
