The Problem
While watching HBO’s Game of Thrones, I saw a parallel between the struggles of Westeros and today’s geopolitical stage. The Night King is a slow-brewing threat gathering beyond the Wall, easy to dismiss because its consequences are, for now, someone else’s problem. Meanwhile, the great houses keep competing for absolute power rather than uniting against an enemy that respects no border and that no single kingdom can defeat alone.
The Night King, in this metaphor, is climate change – ironic, given that the real threat is rising temperatures. Like the squabbling houses of Westeros, the world’s major powers remain locked in their own contests for power rather than cooperating to properly address a force that threatens every part of life, from national defence to the survival of the human race.
Although the people of Westeros eventually heed the warnings and band together to battle the army of the dead (in potentially the worst-lit episode of TV ever broadcast), the fear is that the real-world reaction to climate change will more closely reflect Netflix’s 2021 feature, Don’t Look Up. In the film, a massive comet hurtles towards Earth while two low-level astronomers try to warn a distracted, profit-driven society and government. Sound familiar? It may be a different extinction-level event, but the film stands as a direct satire of modern society’s apathy, political polarisation and failure to heed climate science.
It would be idealistic to imagine that any nation will set aside its pursuit of power to prioritise tackling climate change. Therefore, the real question is whether a country can maintain, and even grow, its power without harming the environment it depends on. One sector suggests it can: Britain’s screen industry, which is extending the UK’s global influence while working to shrink its own environmental footprint.
The Opportunity
Britain’s hard power has diminished relative to states like America and China, and now even its soft power is under pressure. While finance has long been a stronghold of British exports, Brand Finance’s 2026 Global Soft Power Index found that Japan had overtaken the UK to take third place. Yet through all of this, film and high-end TV (HETV) production is on the rise. Production spend in the UK reached £6.8 billion in 2025, up 22% on 2024, with feature films alone hitting a record £2.8 billion (BFI). This has brought investment into the UK while extending its influence around the world.
English-language film and TV have dominated for decades, reflecting the soft power that comes with the global spread of English: 97 of the 100 highest-grossing films ever made are in English – as of October 2026 – (Box Office Mojo). Through the 20th century, most global hits were Hollywood studio products. From the early 2000s, however, major franchises such as Harry Potter, James Bond, the revived Doctor Who and later The Crown were produced largely in Britain. Over roughly the past decade, more international film and HETV productions have followed, including The Batman, Barbie, Wicked, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Avengers: Age of Ultron and House of the Dragon.
Overall, inward investment delivered £5.8 billion, or 85% of total UK production spend in 2025, while domestic UK films accounted for around 7% of film spend (BFI). Britain’s screen soft power is, therefore, in large part hosting power: international money, spent on British soil, with British crews. That raises the question this piece is about: if Britain is gaining more power over the screen industry, how can it hold this power sustainably?
The Framework
This is where Britain has a genuine claim to leadership. Albert, the industry’s carbon calculator and certification scheme, began as a BBC project and passed to a BAFTA-led organisation in 2011. Today, Albert is used widely across the UK screen industry, with major broadcasters, streamers, production companies and funders supporting or implementing its tools and standards. The BFI, for example, requires projects receiving funding through several of its film funds to gain BAFTA Albert certification (BFI).
UK standards are increasingly shaping production practice beyond Britain. In 2023, 467 productions in 38 countries submitted carbon footprints to BAFTA Albert (2023 Annual Review). For global production companies, one methodology simplifies group-wide reporting: Fremantle funded the development of Albert’s international calculator and committed to rolling it out across its offices worldwide (BAFTA Albert). For industries starting late, licensing a tested tool is faster and cheaper than building one. Australia’s industry body, whose founders described the country as ten years behind (MI3), partnered with Albert so it would not be starting from scratch, and Canada’s CBC, Audiovisual Producers Finland and the Central and Eastern European broadcaster CME have also joined Albert’s international programme. Versions in more than ten languages, international emission factors and, in Australia’s case, a licence to run its own certification lower the barriers further. The UK’s influence, in other words, rests less on persuasion than on having built tools that others now want to use because they are trusted and efficient.
BAFTA Albert’s most recent data, based on more than 2,500 productions in 2024, puts reported emissions from UK film and TV production at nearly 175,000 tonnes of CO2e, the annual footprint of almost 40,000 UK citizens. Travel was responsible for around two-thirds of industry emissions, with flights alone accounting for 30%, while three million litres of fuel were burned in generators in 2024 (Accelerate Report).
The Impact
My recent sustainability role on an Apple TV HETV production highlighted several ways that British sets are making production and messaging more sustainable. Several specialist screen-industry sustainability consultancies operate in the sector, including, but not limited to, Leverage Point Entertainment, Sustainable Film, Neptune Sustainability and Picture Zero. This production worked with one of these consultancies to set a strategy and targets aimed at cutting travel emissions through fully electric production vehicles, including electric coaches, shuttles and transport vehicles for crew, staff and equipment. Individuals driving onto set were offered free charging for electric cars, while car sharing and public transport were also encouraged.
For energy, all permanent generators were replaced with battery power units, and any temporary or emergency generators ran on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO). Where mains power was available, such as at the main studio and some locations, grid electricity was used instead. Renewable sources generated 52.5% of UK electricity in 2025, while fossil fuels accounted for around 32% (gov.uk). This means that using mains electricity can substantially reduce emissions compared with fossil-fuelled generation, although the exact saving depends on the electricity supply and the alternative power source.
Waste reduction was more complicated but was the most impactful activity on this production. In the waste hierarchy, the first priority is to reduce what we use. This was implemented through a “no cup, no coffee” policy, under which cast and crew had to bring their own reusable cup to get a barista coffee on set. At lunch, any packaging and cutlery used was compostable, but crew were encouraged to bring their own reusable containers where possible. The next priority in the hierarchy is to reuse or repurpose. All unused food from lunch was donated to local communities that afternoon, and spent coffee grounds went to a local community orchard. Meanwhile, used or unneeded props were donated to a local arts charity, where artists can use them in their work, and furniture was given to local community housing or the British Heart Foundation. The final priority is to recycle, so across the filming locations, three clearly labelled, colour-coded bins were readily available for recycling, compostables and general waste. I visited the waste facility where these were taken and sorted, to carry out due diligence and make sure the waste wasn’t simply being incinerated – it wasn’t.
The other half of the story is what reaches the audience. BAFTA Albert’s 2023 data shows that over 70% of continuing drama and news productions included climate content, against an average of 31% across all genres (BAFTA). Research by BAFTA Albert and the University of York found that climate content raises audience interest and concern, and that incidental mentions can have similar effects to storylines specifically about climate (White Rose). This shows that Britain has a responsibility not only for the productions filmed on its soil, but also for the messaging around climate change in those productions, which will be seen by a global audience.
Part of the sustainability consultant’s role is to review the script and make footnotes outlining ways in which sustainability could be represented. For instance, if the character gets a coffee, it would be suggested they use a reusable cup or order oat milk rather than cows’ milk, which is carbon intensive, or soya, which is water intensive (Our World In Data). While not all of these will be considered, for example if they are out of character, any that do get through are important and will usually be considered if they seem natural.
This two-tier approach to sustainability on British film and TV sets is helping to secure a future for British soft power through the screen sector while mitigating the climate impact of these productions. But the opportunity is larger than simply making individual productions greener. Britain has built an unusually powerful position as a global screen-production hub at precisely the moment when climate change is demanding new standards for how industries operate.
There is a risk that this places too much importance on an industry whose direct emissions are relatively small compared with the scale of the global climate crisis; improving the sustainability of individual sets cannot, by itself, solve climate change. While this criticism has some merit, it misses the wider point. Britain’s value lies not simply in the tonnes of carbon it can remove from production, but in the standards it can set, the international productions it can influence and the stories it can put in front of global audiences. The fact that productions in 38 countries used Albert’s carbon calculator in 2023 alone demonstrates that British-led standards can travel far beyond the emissions of the UK industry itself (2023 Annual Review).
Summary
The message here is not that nations must give up power to survive, but that they must use it differently. Britain cannot solve the climate crisis alone, but through its screen industry it can shape how the world’s biggest productions are made and what stories reach global audiences. Every set it hosts can show that sustainability works in practice, and every tool it exports, from Albert’s calculator to its certification standards, helps another production follow, and can even be translated to other industries. That is soft power built on credibility rather than persuasion: proof that economic growth, cultural influence and climate responsibility can reinforce rather than undermine one another. Whilst winter may not coming, a different type of climate change is, and the Wall is already melting.Westeros was saved not by the strongest house, but by those who stopped competing long enough to fight the same enemy. Britain’s screen industry offers a small but real version of that alliance, with productions in 38 countries already measuring their impact the same way. Climate action like this must transcend industries and borders, much like the threats of climate change do, if we have a hope of a livable future.