Ten years since Paris: How culture drives climate progress

As the UN climate conference is drawing to a close in Brazil this week, it marks 10 years since political leaders agreed to keep the world within a safe level of global warming as part of the Paris Agreement. But while the commitments made then may have put us on a trajectory that averted the very worst case scenario and led to many improvements, they have been far from adequate. And as the climate and the nature crisis continues to intensify, so does the polycrisis of democracy, equality and cost of living. 

So, why is it that we are so off track on climate action when the solutions already exist, and in many ways could multi-solve this polycrisis we’re in? For example, solar and wind energy are now cheaper than fossil fuels.

The answer is that it is largely due to the role of culture and our information ecosystem - and the climate community is increasingly realising this. In fact, 10 years ago culture wasn't understood as a part of climate action. If anything, it was seen as a creative way to communicate the facts of the problem. Climate action and COP were largely focused on data, diplomacy, policy and economics. It was based on the assumption that the experts knew best and that governments needed to implement policies and legal frameworks and everything would follow.

This year at COP30, however, we have, for the first time, had formal recognition that not only is the opposite true - culture is upstream of politics - but that our information infrastructure itself is deeply polluted. Brazil convened governments who have issued a declaration on the importance of ‘information integrity’ in order to address climate change. This means countering disinformation and misinformation, and understanding how the very infrastructure of our information systems - our news media, social media and popular entertainment - are shaping how we understand and respond to the climate crisis.

Crucially, the last decade has also shown that science, stats and policy alone are not enough and the recognition of culture’s role in climate action is rapidly growing. Culture is our collective place for sense-making in a time of crisis, and it is where values, social norms and a political mandate are challenged or upheld. Culture is where we explore what it is to be human, and what our place is in our ecosystem. Culture is where we tell stories that connect in ways that facts do not, where we enact new rituals and express our beliefs. If we are to transition to living within planetary boundaries as rapidly as we need to, it will, in tandem, require a transition of our cultural underpinning.

The climate community now increasingly sees a clear place for culture and storytelling within the climate conversation, especially also through the voices who have long been marginalised in society. For example, Climate Spring was commissioned by the UNFCCC’s culture and entertainment arm, ECCA (Entertainment and Culture for Climate Change Alliance) to scope the potential for a new government-backed development fund for Global Majority film and TV creatives, based on our pioneering development fund model. The Global Majority Fund is urgent for those who are at the forefront of climate action, as the most impacted by climate catastrophes despite being least responsible. At COP30, the ECCA Film and TV Committee laid out the initial concept of the fund and invited governments to commit to better cultural engagement on climate.

As Climate Spring continues to grow, we’re feeling more energised than ever by the rapidly growing movement of creatives and storytellers getting behind the need for new climate narratives. Indeed, we’ve nearly doubled our film and TV slate over the past year, a testimony to the ever-increasing appetite for climate storytelling. As COP30 pulls focus too on the need for storytelling as a form of climate action, it heralds an exciting chapter where culture is no longer a side note - it is now a central catalyst for systemic change.

A piece by Lucy Stone, Founder & Executive Director of Climate Spring.