Climate change coverage

However well the media sector performs in working towards its zero carbon targets by re-evaluating internal processes and corporate behaviour, its greatest beneficial impact arguably rests in its capacity to change societal and consumer behaviour. Here, the media sector has an enormous part to play – through portrayals on screen, in TV shows, news programmes such as Sky’s The Daily Climate Show and documentaries, as well as in advertising. Where broadcasters used to give climate change deniers equal airtime in discussions on the topic, this is no longer the case.

Some TV programmes, despite perhaps having a relatively heavy carbon footprint, have served to get important messages about climate change across to many millions of people. To film a nature documentary, the crew has to take their equipment to far flung places, often for weeks or months at a time. However, the beneficial impact of these programmes can dwarf the carbon footprint involved in making them. The net benefit of some of these productions – Blue Planet II being an obvious example – has therefore been exponentially higher than the actual carbon footprint created because they have educated so many people about the horrendous impact of climate change on animal and human habitats. 

‘ITV takes issues which are on the edge of the mainstream and makes them mainstream,’ says Braun. When it comes to making climate change mainstream, nothing can surpass COP26 which is to be hosted by the UK in Glasgow. COP is shorthand for conference of the parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This year’s meeting, COP26, will officially open on 31 October with more than 120 world leaders attending as they seek to find ways to reduce GHG emissions and deliver on the ambitions set out in the Paris Agreement and the Convention. Under the 1992 UNFCCC, every country is treaty-bound to “avoid dangerous climate change”. 

‘We talk about our social purpose plans at ITV, our ability as a platform to reflect and shape culture,’ says Braun. ‘On the first day of COP26, we’ve got Climate Action Day on ITV, our main channel. So, from six o’clock in the morning through to 10:30 at night, the entire day is going to have a climate action theme within the programmes and the advertising breaks.’