Climate Change On Television
IBT has a longstanding interest in climate change. Several years ago we published The Environment on TV – are broadcasters meeting the challenge? That report highlighted a creative gap – broadcasters wanted innovative and engaging content on climate change but they struggled to find the right ideas to bring to the screen. Since then, we have worked with independent producers, broadcasters and a wide range of experts to stimulate their creativity and to make the case for reframing climate change so that it is not just seen as an environmental issue but one that affects very many aspects of our daily lives.
A year ago, the Paris Agreement was signed and governments committed themselves to major reductions in their carbon emissions. These commitments imply far reaching changes to everyday life. Since television is one of the main sources of information for the UK public about climate change it is timely to examine the way that it has covered this issue over the past year.
In this latest report, Climate Change on Television, Joe Smith talks to a range of broadcasters, independent producers and academics. He argues that television has a good track record of making issues related to climate change accessible to mainstream audiences and he makes some concrete suggestions for ways in which it could continue to tell a range of stories about climate change that will engage audiences and better equip them to respond to this dynamic story.
