ITV announces Climate Action Week plans

ITV plans to put the environment front and centre for its viewers during the channel’s Climate Action Week, taking place from November 1st alongside the COP26 talks in Glasgow. 

During Climate Action Week the channel will see a strong range of programming, from topical new commissions to coverage in ITV’s live daytime shows, news, current affairs and even quizzes. 

New commissions include oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald’s film, It Takes a Flood, which will go into the heart of the increasingly ferocious floods hitting the UK in recent years. In a one-off-special film, Joanna Lumley and The Human Swan, Joanna Lumley sets out to follow adventurer Sacha Dench, AKA the ‘Human Swan’, as she flies – green-powered – around Britain's coast in search of climate change solutions. Sacha had almost completed her pioneering Round Britain Climate Challenge expedition, when, last month, her support pilot Dan Burton, tragically lost his life after a mid-air paramotor collision with Sacha, who was seriously injured. Dan’s family, Sacha herself and all involved are keen that this story continues to be told with its urgent message in the drive for a net zero future. In Orkney – Britain’s Green Islands Julia Bradbury and ITV weather presenter Alex Beresford have travelled to Orkney to see how these beautiful islands are making stunning progress towards a greener future. The concluding part of Save Money: My Beautiful Green Home airs during Climate Action Week, in which Ranvir Singh and property expert and designer Kunle Barker show how we can achieve the green dream of an eco-friendly home - without breaking the bank. And ahead of Climate Action Week, Love Your Garden heads to Salford to surprise a community hero with an eco-inspired kitchen garden.

For the first time in British television history, the country’s soaps and continuing dramas including Coronation Street and Emmerdale are joining forces to highlight the issue of climate change and environmental issues, an idea originally conceived by Jane Hudson, Emmerdale’s Executive Producer. The episodes will air across the first week of November.

ITV News have extensive plans for COP26 which will be broadcast across regional and network bulletins as well as ITV’s digital output, with ITV’s flagship bulletins Early Evening and News at Ten, as well as Peston, in Glasgow during the conference. Building on ITV News's long running ‘Earth on the Edge’ series examining the very real impact of climate change internationally and in the UK, and its ‘Last Chance To Save The Planet’ series spotlighting on solutions to the climate crisis, ITV News will bring viewers comprehensive coverage across platforms in the run-up, during and after the COP26 conference. 

ITV’s flagship current affairs programme Tonight will see meteorologist and GMB weather presenter Laura Tobin reporting on cost effective ways that consumers can help reduce their carbon footprint, and The Martin Lewis Money Show will also have a live COP26 special during ITV’s Climate Action Week.

James Martin's Saturday Morning will feature sustainable recipes as well as guests Tom Hunt the 'eco-chef' and chef Rovinder Bhogal who runs London's first carbon neutral restaurant. Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh will see the nation’s favourite gardener getting involved, exploring sustainable gardening and more on his weekend morning ITV show.

ITV’s live daytime shows Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women will all be covering Climate Action themes during the week, while The Chase will include ‘green-themed’ questions. The Pride of Britain Awards, broadcast during this week, will also include an inaugural Environmental Champion award. 

In addition to a packed editorial schedule, ITV will also be running a Climate Action-focused behaviour change marketing campaign in its promotional airtime, encouraging viewers to make simple, easy swaps in their day to day lives that can add up to a powerful impact for the planet. The campaign will dramatise how making a small change can do more for the planet that you might expect from a small swap. 

Beyond its on-screen programming, ITV also furthers its environmental goals through commercial partnerships under ITV’s sustainable partnership brand ITV Home Planet, including with eBay, who are the official sponsor of Climate Action Week, as well as new bespoke Home Planet campaigns from Polestar and Severn Trent Water.

ITV has a rigorous internal plan to, as a business, make significant progress on climate action. ITV has science-based targets to ensure the business meets its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2030. These include a commitment by 2030 to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 46.2% and Scope 3 by 28%, setting a target to be zero waste by 2030, aiming for a 100% sustainable supply chain, and 100% of staff being trained in Climate Action. In addition ITV requires all its produced and commissioned productions to be certified by albert - BAFTA’s environmental organisation focused on reducing the waste and carbon footprint of the TV and film production industry. ITV also helped create the DIMPACT measurement system to quantify and help reduce the impact of digital content distribution. 

ENDS

ITV Climate Action Week

Programming - New commissions 

It Takes a Flood

Directed by Kevin Macdonald and produced by Docsville, this landmark film goes into the heart of the increasingly ferocious floods hitting the UK in recent years.

It takes in London as it is battered by historic levels of rain this summer and is with horrified home-owners as floodwater comes pouring up through toilets, includes visceral phone footage capturing the moment raging floodwater rampages through a historic town and shows that while flood defences can help, they can’t hold back the water forever.

And as the challenges of flooding mount, the film features a powerful beacon of hope in Ravi Singh, who runs an international disaster relief charity, which draws no distinction between a flood in Bangladesh and one in Hebden Bridge. As he helps traumatised flood victims, his message – we become resilient by helping each other - shines through.

Director Kevin Mcdonald said: ‘With more extreme weather coming our way as a result of climate change, we believe it’s vital to understand the impact of flooding here and now in the UK, at such a crucial juncture for the world.” 

Joanna Lumley and The Human Swan 

In this one-off-special film, Joanna Lumley sets out to follow adventurer Sacha Dench, AKA the ‘Human Swan’, as she flies – green-powered – around Britain's coast in search of climate change solutions.

Over a three month period, Sacha aimed to complete an unprecedented journey with her electric paramotor round mainland Britain - attempting to set a new world record for electric flight with a powerful purpose

Sacha had almost completed her pioneering Round Britain Climate Challenge expedition, when, last month, her support pilot Dan Burton, tragically lost his life after a mid-air paramotor collision with Sacha, who was seriously injured. 

Dan’s family, Sacha herself and all involved are keen that this story continues to be told with its urgent message in the drive for a net zero future.  

This film is dedicated to Dan.

Produced by Wingspan Productions for ITV. 

Orkney – Britain’s Green Islands

Julia Bradbury and Alex Beresford travel to Orkney to see how these beautiful islands are making stunning progress towards a greener future.  Immersing themselves in island life, they find out how, on land and sea, Orcadians are harnessing their extreme weather to power their lives. 

Their experience takes in a range of innovative solutions, which sees Alex visit a tiny community which has turned their fortunes around by building a massive wind turbine allowing them to sell power to the grid and pour substantial profits into local amenities. Julia discovers that Orkney produces around 130% of its energy needs through renewables, on windy days producing more electricity than the grid can handle, and sees cutting-edge technology at work that could transform travel around the islands and beyond, replacing the fossil fuels used to power ferries and even leading to hydrogen-powered aircraft. Orkney hopes its short island-hopping routes will host the world’s first hydrogen-powered passenger flight. 

They learn about the potential of wave power with Orkney’s vast natural harbour of Scapa Flow providing a nursery site where companies from around the world come to test wave energy prototypes and a visit to  the 02 – the world’s most powerful tidal turbine, discovering the UK coastline accounts for an estimated one half the tidal capacity of Europe. 

The islands’ unforgettable landscape and its resourceful people leave Julia and Alex inspired at their potential as pathfinders pointing the way towards a bright, sustainable future.

Orkney – Britain’s Green Islands is a Wingspan Production for ITV. It is filmed, produced and directed by Kim Lomax. The Executive Producer is Archie Baron. The ITV Commissioning Editor is Priya Singh.

Save Money: My Beautiful Green Home 

The concluding part of this three-part series aired during Climate Action Week. The series sees journalist Ranvir Singh and property expert and designer Kunle Barker show how we can achieve the green dream of an eco-friendly home - without breaking the bank.  Following three families as they renovate and retrofit their traditional homes with the latest green technology, they will showcase how creative thinking can transform anyone’s home into a truly beautiful and sustainable environment, not only helping to save the planet, but saving lots of money too.  

In addition, Ranvir and Kunle meet the owners and architects of some of the nation’s most trailblazing eco-builds, visiting the UK’s most cutting edge properties for inspiration and to discover how accessible and practical green building can be.  

The series is packed to the brim with smaller tips and tricks showing everyone that however big or small, new or old their own home is, they can do their bit to green it up and modernise.

Save Money: My Beautiful Green Home promises to delight and demystify all things eco-build so we can all do our bit to help the planet, have lovely homes and save money into the bargain. 

Daytime

ITV Daytime will broadcast key climate action content across the COP26 summit.

Following the success of Good Morning Britain's exclusive from the mouth of Borebreen, a glacier in Svalbard, where the impact of climate change was witnessed and heard (cracking ice) live on air, GMB will be reporting live and speaking to world leaders, whose nations are already living the effects of climate change.

From 6am each weekday morning, GMB will be investigating what we can do closer to home, in our own homes, including the impact of heat pumps and looking into the recycling journey of plastic beyond the UK. 

On Lorraine, climate activist Dr Amir Kahn will be visiting Lorraine’s home to help her with climate friendly tips.  

Following the success of This Morning broadcasting from their very own forest in September the award-winning show has ongoing plans to film from their new outside home, including segments on how to look after nature and wildlife, sustainable fashion and beauty, and how to utilise homegrown ingredients to encourage viewers to play a part in helping the planet.

Ahead of Climate Action Week, on Monday 25th October, Josie Gibson and Alison Hammond will be taking a three-day eco road trip from London to Glasgow in an electric Kia car. Along the way, they will stop off and show viewers some eco-friendly tips and tricks. 

And on Loose Women, the panellists will face green challenges to find out if being more environmentally friendly could change their lives. From going vegan to using eco-friendly cleaning products, menstrual cups and sharing clothes, the award-winning daytime show will be looking at the small but effective ways everyone can make changes through a series of challenges. 

The above is produced by ITV Studios Daytime.