BAFTA albert Releases 2023 Annual Review

2023 Industry progress

2023 was a landmark year for the screen industries with the most productions ever completing carbon footprints. Over 3,000 footprints were completed, an 11% increase on 2022. As well as more productions using the toolkit, individual productions also submitted, on average, 32% more data points per entry creating a richer data set. During the same period, we saw a 33% increase year-on-year in emissions per hour of content (16.6 tCO2e/hr).   

It wasn’t just UK TV productions committing to more sustainable practices. Film footprints increased from 57 in 2022 to 78 in 2023. While internationally, 467 productions in 38 different countries submitted footprints.   

This year’s report is also the first to publish the Climate Themes Snapshot, a summary of the climate content data submitted voluntarily by productions. Continuing Dramas and News included the most climate references, with over 70% of productions in those genres including climate content. The average across all genres was 31%, with the themes of food and agriculture, nature, waste and consumption being the most popular. The 2023 Snapshot will act as a benchmark to measure progress with more detailed approaches to measure impact being explored in 2024.   

BAFTA albert 2023 highlights

To help drive forward industry progress in the coming years, 2023 was also the year BAFTA albert launched a decarbonisation strategy for the whole industry titled the Climate Action Blueprint. The Blueprint aims to accelerate collective climate action across the film and TV industries. The strategy sets out four focus areas: Climate and Storytelling, Culture & Capability, Standards, Measurement & Reporting, and Off-Screen Actions. In the report, albert’s 2023 progress is detailed across these four areas.   

Bringing sustainable practices to life on and off-screen at Emmerdale

In this year’s report, we highlight the significant efforts across the industry to address the impact of climate change on production and raise awareness through storytelling. We’re excited to showcase case studies of these initiatives, including a special feature on Emmerdale. The Emmerdale team is taking great strides forward in reducing its production’s environmental footprint and integrating climate-focused narratives into its scripts.  

Watch the video below to see how Emmerdale is tackling climate change both on and off-screen. For more inspiring examples, be sure to check out the full report.