This year at COP28 UNFCCC Climate Conference in Dubai, UAE, the Bellona Foundation is hosting the Storytelling for Action Pavilion in the UNFCCC Blue Zone, in partnership with BAFTA albert, Futerra, and Think-Film Impact Production.
Stories are core to human nature. We are moved by narratives with meaning and relate to one another through engaging characters. In the face of the dramatic shifts in the global climate and global economy, people are seeking truly authentic and engaging stories to provide understanding, empowerment and hope. Stories that can enable meaningful climate action.
Good storytelling has also proven to be highly effective at building public awareness and engagement on important issues, making it an underutilized opportunity for engaging millions of people worldwide at this pivotal moment in humanity’s own story.
The Storytelling for Action Pavilion will host a series of conversations that have never been had at COP between the entertainment community and the climate science & policy community on the role of storytelling in addressing global climate change. It will feature participation from major entertainment studios, broadcasters, and leading storytellers and creators to:
1. Explore why storytelling represents a critical opportunity to engage global audiences in tackling climate change.
2. Share how storytellers are effectively engaging audiences on both the realities and solutions to climate change, and how members of the talent community can raise awareness.
3. Bring attention to the need for greater support for storytelling capacity to enable more genuinely entertaining, engaging, and evidence-based storytelling.
The specific sessions and timings will be announced soon.
Organizing Partner Descriptions:
The Bellona Foundation is an international environmental NGO working on the major climate and environmental problems. Founded in 1986 as a direct action protest group, Bellona has become a recognised technology and solution-oriented organization with offices in Oslo, Brussels, Berlin, and Vilnius, and representatives in USA and several EU Member States. Frederic Hauge, founder of Bellona, was named a TIME Magazine Hero of the Environment in the award’s inaugural year 2007. In addition to Hauge, some 70 engineers, ecologists, biologists, economists, lawyers, political scientists and journalists work at Bellona.
BAFTA albert is the leading screen industry organisation for environmental sustainability. Owned and operated by BAFTA, and founded in 2011, albert supports the film and TV industry to reduce the environmental impacts of production and to create content that supports a vision for a sustainable future. The industry-backed organisation offers online tools and training, events, practical guidance and thought leadership to all screen industry professionals to help them identify and act upon opportunities on and off screen which can lead to effective climate action.
More at the albert website: http://www.wearealbert.com
Futerra is a change agency with a mission to ‘Make the Anthropocene Awesome’. We work with Hollywood studios, activist groups, broadcasters, social media creators, street artists and global brands to tell climate solution stories. Founded in 2001, our clients and partners include Google, WWF, Netflix, IKEA, TikTok, Sky, Unilever, Sierra Club and the United Nations. Futerra is majority-owned and led by women, a founding B Corp and the first agency designated a Climate Solutions Provider under the United Nations Race to Zero. Our team is based in London, New York, San Francisco and Mexico City.
Visit us at https://www.wearefuterra.com/.
Think-Film Impact Production is an Oscar-winning impact media company with specialist expertise at the cutting-edge intersection of art and social change. Founded by socio-political impact pioneer Danielle Turkov Wilson, Think-Film has worked on major movies, including 2023 Oscar and Bafta winner Navalny (Warner Media/CNN Films), championing democratic freedoms and launching sanctions against Russia, Peabody winner The Territory (National Geographic), protecting Indigenous rights in a new EU law that bans deforestation, Dark Waters (Participant Media, Mark Ruffalo, Todd Haynes), banning toxic PFAS chemicals in Europe, The Son (See Saw Films, Hugh Jackman, Florian Zeller), integrating culture into mental health policy strategies, and many more.
Visit www.tfip.org and follow on social media @thinkfilmimpact.
If you have any questions about this or would like to get involved please contact us dturkov@tfip.org.
