Climate Creatives 2025 presented by BBC Academy Live

Climate Creatives 2025 was the fifth edition of the conference that took place in October, at the Royal Geographical Society.

We explored change and transformation – not just as a future possibility but a current reality. And as the world shifts before our eyes in so many profound ways, from AI to climate change, what that means for the stories we tell and how we tell them.

Watch back key sessions from the day, and highlights from the 2024 conference and years prior.

Report by the BBC’s Climate Editor

Justin Rowlatt report's on climate change, the planet and the media’s response.

Keynote listeners

Throughout the day we heard from our outstanding panel of keynote listeners - including Roya Eslami, Head of Development, BBC Comedy, Daisy Scalchi, Head of Religion and Ethics, BBC Specialist Factual, Danielle Scott-Haughton, Commissioning Editor, BBC Drama, Cal Turner, Commissioning Editor, BBC Factual Entertainment & Events, Benedetta Pinelli, Commissioning Editor Sky Arts and many more commissioners from the BBC and other UK broadcasters. They helped to ensure that the conversations stayed grounded in the question of how to bring big ideas to big audiences.

Host

Welcome by the Royal Geographical Society

Welcome and opening remarks by the Director of the Royal Geographical Society, Joe Smith.

Creative Keynote

Multi award-winning filmmaker, James Bluemel in conversation with celebrated space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock about his BBC series, Once Upon a Time in Space and the impact of seeing Earth from amongst the stars. Together they explored the intersection of science, politics and storytelling. James’ previous work includes Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland (2023), Once Upon a Time in Iraq (2020) and Exodus: Our Journey to Europe (2016). Maggie is an honorary research associate of UCL’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, the presenter of The Sky at Night and is delivering this year's much loved Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for the BBC.

Postcards from the Future: Power Station

What if every home or street was its own power station? How would that change communities? What would it do to bills? An interactive experience to consider alternative ways to power our lives. Please note the live polling is no longer available.

Plot twists: Story Formats Fit for the Future

How story-telling is evolving in our multi-changing landscape – and whether it’s evolving fast enough to capture our current reality. We talk story structures, plots and platforms. Including a provocation from Kate Phillips, BBC Chief Content Officer.

Audience Insights Quiz

A lively and interactive quiz to see if the audience could guess what truly makes people stop, think, and engage. With Jason Singh providing live sound effects through his inimitable nature beatboxing - giving a whole new perspective to the concept of a 'sting'.

Reading and Q&A with Abi Daré

Reading of Abi Daré's "And So I Roar" by Abi, a best-selling author and winner of the 2025 Climate Fiction Prize. Followed by a Q&A.

Postcards from the Future: Interspecies Council

What would decisions look like if we considered the needs and voices of rivers, trees and other species, beyond humans? What if nature had a seat at the table? An interactive experience to consider alternative ways to make decisions on planet Earth. Please note the live polling is no longer available.

Neuroscience Insights for Climate Storytelling

Do you feel caught between a rock and a hard place - personally sensing both the scale and importance of climate change and knowing professionally that overwhelmingly doom and gloom content makes audiences switch off? This hands-on session explored the neuroscience insights that can help you to get 'unstuck' in your climate storytelling challenges and how to effectively navigate audiences' varying attitudes towards the topic.

Help: Mental Health and How to Survive and Thrive in the Face of Climate Change

How do we, as creatives, process the difficult knowledge of climate change and then help audiences to do the same - turning it from a 'switch off' to 'lean in' topic.

We had an honest conversation - with laughs - before turning to special guests and the wider audience for their thoughts and input.

Reflections on the day and breaking out of the 'climate bubble'

After a day of conversations, we reflected on what we heard with Richie Jones, from polling company Ipsos, about what their research tells us about breaking out of the 'climate bubble' and ensuring we engage and reflect a range of perspectives. Hosted by Danielle Mulder, BBC Sustainability Officer.

Host

Guests

Want to get up to speed on the broader public opinion, media, business and policy landscape around climate change and related themes? In this lunchtime session we explored the key questions. Is polarisation on the issue growing? Are businesses really backsliding on previous commitments?

With legal judgements and extreme weather events around the world, what's the global response looking like in the run up to COP30 in Brazil, the biggest UN climate change conference since the negotiation of the landmark Paris climate agreement? And crucially, how effectively is the media covering it all in the face of mis and disinformation? 

Get beyond the rhetoric and find out what the data is actually telling us about our climate and the world's response in our expert briefing session, chaired by BBC Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt.

Highlights: Climate Creatives 2024 

For the perfect lead-up to this year’s Climate Creatives, watch the main takeaways from last year.

Want to watch more? All the exciting sessions, including those with key industry names like Hamza Yassin and Chris Packham, are awaiting you at Climate Creatives 2024.

Climate Creatives supports the People Positive pillar in the BBC’s three pillar sustainability strategy. People Positive focuses on informing and educating audiences on the most pressing issues facing our planet, and supporting creatives to do just that, sitting alongside Nature Positive and Net Zero.