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Industry sustainability top of agenda at BBC Climate Creatives 2022 event

The broadcast industry will gather together at today's BBC-hosted event to take stock of the changes made since last year's COP26 summit, and identify areas for collaboration on achieving sustainability targets

Almost one year on from the UN’s landmark Climate Change Conference (COP26), the BBC is bringing the broadcasting industry together today for its virtual Climate Creatives 2022 event where leading industry professionals, including screenwriter Russell T Davies, will take a fresh look at how creatives can respond and engage with climate change.

Today’s event will assemble a mix of commissioners, production staff, and storytellers to take a fresh look at what’s changed in broadcasting and how the industry can work together to find sustainability solutions.

The line-up boasts a range of speakers from broadcasters and streaming services (BBC, BBC Studios, ITV Studios, Sky, Channel 4, Channel 5/Paramount +, Netflix ), independent media producers (Argonon, Little Bird Films), the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta), a video game and software developer (Epic Games), and more.

Climate Creatives is sponsored by the BBC’s Charlotte Moore, introduced by BBC journalist and presenter Phillipa Thomas, and delivered by BBC Academy with partners including Albert, Creative UK, BBC Studios, the Royal Television Society and the BFI.

“Nearly one year on from the historic COP26 conference and with the next UN summit fast approaching, now is the time to come together again as a sector to refocus our efforts towards confronting climate change,” said Gaby Hornsby, TV lead for sustainability, BBC. “This is a collective endeavour and we need solutions at scale. That requires collaboration and I’m certain Climate Creatives will once again provide that crucial platform for discussion and the sharing of ideas.”

In a pre-recorded session, Russell T Davies shares his insights on how climate change is impacting his own writing and the pressing need he feels to listen to and reflect the concerns of young audiences, as well as champion young writers. “Keep looking for those new writers”, he said in response to how commissioners can support more scripted content with climate change as a key theme. “The key I think is there needs to be more work in pairing up new writers with established production teams, because when you’re looking for a television script, you’re not just looking for someone who can write a script, you’re looking for someone who could deliver a script, and that is a huge part of the job.”

Setting out the support needed for young writers, he said: “They need that spine, they need help, they need holding”, adding, “most of them need the production skills.”

“We need to take those writers on set, we need to train them”, he goes on to say. “Once you get the new talent coming in with that production background, then we’ll have more young ideas, we’ll have even more first time writers on board and they are the ones who were talking about the climate stuff when they were five. They’ve grown up with this, it’s their language, it’s innately their view of the world and I honestly believe that’s where the answers will come from.”

You can watch the livestream today from 1030-1630, here: www.bbc.com/academy/events/climate-creatives-2022/watch-live.