New 'Screen Carbon Test' launches to help audiences and creators assess climate messaging in film and TV
Published: 12 June 2025
A groundbreaking new tool to evaluate how well film and television represent climate change is being launched to the public at the University of Glasgow’s Dear Green Music Scene festival.
A groundbreaking new tool to evaluate how well film and television represent climate change is being launched to the public at the University of Glasgow’s Dear Green Music Scene festival.
The Screen Carbon Test (SCT) - described by its creators as "food labelling for storylines" - uses a clear, traffic-light rating system to help audiences and industry professionals assess how effectively films and TV shows acknowledge CO₂ pollution and climate change, explore its causes and impacts and propose meaningful solutions.
Developed by Dr Inge Sørensen of the University of Glasgow and filmmaker David Griffith, the SCT was created in the wake of COP26 as part of a wider effort to embed sustainability into media education.
With initial funding from Screen Scotland’s Education Department, the Screen Carbon Test was first developed in collaboration with teachers as part of a suite of Film Sustainability Resources for students studying Media Highers in Scottish secondary schools.
It later received additional support from the University of Glasgow’s College of Arts & Humanities and the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the Arts Accelerator Awards. Over the past two years, the SCT has undergone extensive development, user testing and refinement.
The SCT is a user-generated rating system that evaluates how well films and TV shows address climate change following the UN’s 2020 Global Climate Emergency declaration. Using a three-part questionnaire, it builds on BAFTA Albert’s sustainability criteria by assessing whether a production acknowledges the natural world, portrays environmental harm negatively, and includes characters taking positive environmental action.
The test is already gaining traction internationally. Welsh author Cynan Jones has been using the tool to “climate-proof” scripts for a forthcoming BBC adaptation of his novels. Additionally, it is being adopted in screenwriting courses across South Africa, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
Dr Sørensen, Senior Lecturer in Screen Industries and Media Policy at the University’s College of Arts & Humanities, said: “With the Screen Carbon Test, we aim to empower both creators and audiences to think more critically about how climate change is portrayed on screen. Film and TV are powerful influences on attitudes and behaviours in society, and the SCT harnesses this to address the climate emergency.”
Filmmaker and film educator David Griffith from Timelock Media Ltd said: “The stories we tell on screen shape perception -- and perception drives change. Since Climate Change is perhaps the greatest challenges humanity has yet faced, it should be the responsibility of artists and filmmakers to engage with it in their work.”
The Screen Carbon Test (SCT) evaluates the climate content of film and television storylines through a series of guided questions. Functioning like a traffic light system, it monitors, educates and raises awareness about CO₂-polluting messages in film and TV drama - much like food labelling, but for screen content. Comparable to the Bechdel Test- which measures the representation of female characters - the SCT applies similar logic to assess climate-related messaging.
The first set of five questions examines how well a film or show acknowledges the natural world and addresses the issue of climate change.
The second set of five questions explores whether the film or show tries to understand and explore the scale of the environmental challenge and the way in which the impacts of climate change and environmental destruction are not always felt equally across different communities.
The third set of questions asks whether the filmmakers, or any of the characters in the film or TV show, assume responsibility for trying to find solutions to the many problems surrounding climate change and environmental degradation. The higher a film scores on the Screen Carbon Test questionnaire, the stronger its climate credentials.
In alignment with its environmental mission, the SCT website is built using low-impact code. It is designed to minimise data traffic between external databases and the platform itself, thereby reducing energy consumption and lowering its overall environmental footprint.
The Screen Carbon Test
The Screen Carbon Test rating system was conceived and developed by David Griffith from Timelock Media Ltd and Dr Inge Sørensen of the University of Glasgow.
The Screen Carbon Test is entirely non-profit. It was awarded initial funding from Screen Scotland’s Film Education Programme in 2021 and from University of Glasgow’s AHRC Arts Impact Accelerator Account.
The Dear Green Music Festival takes place on Sunday 15 June 2025 from 12pm to 6.30pm at the University of Glasgow, Advanced Research Centre, 11 Chapel Lane, Glasgow. Full details are here: https://www.gla.ac.uk/events/listings/index.html/event/14143
First published: 12 June 2025