The Bafta film awards are going greener – but some climate problems are hiding off camera
The Bafta film awards are brilliant at making film feel like it matters. The clothes, the cameras, the applause, the shared cultural moment. That spectacle is the point.
But it also has a climate shadow. Not just from the night itself, but from the behaviour it effectively rewards and normalises in the weeks around it.
Here’s the awkward truth: the biggest carbon impact in film and TV isn’t the red carpet. It’s travel. And awards season is, in effect, a celebration of travel.
Industry data backs this up. Bafta Albert is the film and TV industry’s sustainability organisation which supports productions to measure and reduce their environmental impact.
It highlights that productions that report their emissions find that around 65% come from travel and transport, with flights alone accounting for roughly 30% of the total. Energy use – mainly from studios and on-location generators – makes up about a fifth, while materials and waste account for the rest. In short: the carbon is mostly off camera.
So what about the Bafta film awards themselves?
Bafta has made visible efforts to reduce the negative environmental effects of the ceremony. This year, organisers are using diesel-free generators at the venue and green electricity tariffs at Royal Festival Hall in London, plus reusing existing sets and props. Red meat won’t feature on the menu and guests are encouraged to rewear or hire an outfit for the occasion.
A spokesperson for Bafta and Bafta Albert explained that the carbon emissions and the footprint of the awards have been measured and reduced using Bafta Albert resources and guidance. “Proactive steps taken this year include the use of [hydrotreated vegetable oil] HVO generators, hosting the awards at a venue also dedicated to reducing its own carbon emissions, encouraging sustainable travel, banning single use plastics, sustainable menus and minimising waste,” they said.
Previous awards have been described as carbon neutral, with changes such as removing nominee goody bags and introducing vegan menu options. More recently, sustainability messaging has extended to catering and packaging choices.
These changes aren’t meaningless. They’re also the easiest things to photograph.
The problem is scale. If flights dominate emissions, then the biggest wins won’t come from menus or outfits. They’ll come from changing how people get there in the first place.
I research sustainability in film production, including how cinematography and production practices can reduce environmental impact, and one thing is clear: framing sustainability as removal or punishment rarely works. People resist. They dig in. Or they swing hard in the opposite direction.
At the same time, the glamour of awards season is precisely why people watch and pay attention. Strip that away entirely and the cultural power goes with it. The real challenge is finding a balance: keeping the spectacle while changing the behaviour it endorses.
One practical way to do this is to stop treating awards travel as an unfortunate side-effect and instead make it part of the event itself.
Read more: The hidden carbon cost of reality TV shows like The Traitors
Rather than dozens of individual long-haul flights – and, yes, sometimes private jets – designated flights from major hubs could be coordinated from places like Los Angeles, New York, Paris or Amsterdam. If you’re attending, you take the shared flight. If you can’t, you accept your award remotely, as people have done perfectly well in the past.
This wouldn’t eliminate flying. But it would reduce per-person emissions, remove the prestige of flying separately and turn collective travel into something visible and intentional.
I’ve experienced this kind of shared travel firsthand. Years ago, flying back from a film shoot in Budapest, Hungary, I found myself on a completely ordinary commercial flight that happened to be carrying athletes travelling to London ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games.
There was press at the airport, excitement in the cabin and a palpable sense of shared purpose. These were people at the top of their fields, travelling together, not separately, on the same flight as everyone else. It didn’t feel like a compromise. It felt anticipatory, slightly chaotic, yet collective.
This is not an unprecedented idea. Sport already does this. Politics does this. Even music tours do this. Film just pretends it can’t.
During COVID, awards ceremonies and press circuits moved online or became hybrid events. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. Research comparing in-person and virtual international events shows that moving online can cut carbon footprints by around 94%, largely by removing travel. Awards aren’t conferences, but the lesson is clear: if travel is the biggest source of emissions, reducing travel is the biggest lever.
Greenwash v real change
A simple test helps separate meaningful sustainability from greenwash. Does an action reduce high-emissions activities – flights, fuel, power, logistics – or does it mainly change how things look?
Carbon offsetting, for example, is often used to claim climate neutrality without changing underlying behaviour. But many offset schemes have been criticised as ineffective or misleading. The EU has moved to restrict environmental claims based on offsetting alone.
That doesn’t mean nothing is happening. Bafta Albert’s Accelerate 2025 roadmap is a UK-wide plan developed with broadcasters and streamers to cut film and TV emissions.
It focuses on cutting flights and encouraging train travel, cleaning up on-set power and changing production norms. This is being echoed by trade coverage calling for practical, immediate action to cut carbon emissions across the film and TV sector.
A spokesperson for Bafta and Bafta Albert stated: “There is a clear dedication to continually increasing the sustainability of the awards, behind the scenes, at the event itself and on screen.”
Awards culture still matters. The Baftas don’t produce most of the industry’s emissions. But they help define what success looks like. If success looks like frantic long-haul travel and personal convenience, that becomes the aspiration. If it looks like coordinated travel, cleaner power and credible data, that becomes the norm.
So keep the glamour. Keep the ceremony. But redesign the signals. If we can make the journey part of the story, we might finally start shrinking the part of film’s footprint that nobody sees – until the planet sends the bill.
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Jack Shelbourn is a member of the Green Party of England and Wales.