London is a capital city of creativity
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What makes London so special? Oh, it has the skyline, the history, and the tourists. But at its heart, this is a city of stories. And that’s something climate action needs more than anything else that London is famous for.
The UK’s capital city is one of the most culturally powerful cities on Earth. From Shakespeare to Stormzy, from punk to pop-ups, London has always been a cultural forge.
According to London’s Mayor, my home city generates more than £55 billion in creative economy value annually and employs over 1 in 5 Londoners in industries like music, theatre, television, advertising, design, gaming, art, fashion and publishing. London’s ad agencies write the slogans that shape brands worldwide. Its stages and studios host the dreamscapes of global cinema. And its cultural exports, whether BBC dramas or Banksy provocations, shape minds far beyond our borders.
This is the side of the city that climate action leaders should seek out during London Climate Action Week, which starts today.
The Climate/Culture Gap
We have ample evidence all around us that climate crisis is no longer a crisis of information. The facts have been available for decades. We don’t lack the logic, we’re missing the magic. People don’t march, vote, invest or invent because they read Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. They do it because they believe in a better future and because someone, somewhere, helped them imagine it.
But we are currently in a storytelling deficit on climate. Too often, our narratives are either numbing doomsday scenarios or dry technical solutions. Both alienate rather than activate. What we’re missing are the cultural touchpoints that make climate feel relevant, hopeful and personal.
That’s where London comes in.
To unlock that potential, we need to entice the world’s top creatives to engage. Not just through guilt or doom, but by showing that climate action is the story of our time. Culture doesn’t wait for permission. It reaches audiences that politics and science can’t touch. It embeds values where lectures fall flat. And it can flip the script in an instant.
Just think of the impact of Blue Planet II, which triggered a nationwide backlash against plastic. Or Don’t Look Up, which sparked millions to talk about climate denial. Or Coldplay’s sustainable tour, which turned carbon accounting into a headline act.
This is a power I know well. Last year, the global Film & TV industry voted me onto Entertainment & Culture for Climate Action, a new committee of UNFCCC dedicated to engaging the creative sector in climate solutions.
I joined because we need a “public mandate” for climate policy. But public mandates aren’t summoned by spreadsheets, they are forged in the crucible of culture. Civil rights had protest songs. Feminism had novels. Anti-apartheid had anthems. Climate needs storytelling.
The right story changes how you see yourself. A film lets you rehearse the future. A meme becomes a movement. The right cultural stories don’t just activate the ‘already concerned’. They reach the undecided, the exhausted, the hopeful-but-hesitant. Those who may never walk into a climate summit, but who walk into a cinema or scroll through Instagram every day.
That’s why culture must be central to climate action. And there’s no where better than London for that to happen.
The #LCAW Culture Track
If you’re attending #LCAW then please connect with the ‘culture track’ of events. Here’s just a taster of the many exciting moments relating to creativity, storytelling and the cultural industries:
The British Film Institute will be hosting events and screenings all week, including an incredible session with the creators of Toxic Town, Netflix recent hit.
Extreme Hangout will also host film screenings, podcast recordings and creative gatherings all week.
Monday, June 23
Climate Curious LIVE | The Culture Edition
Ad Brake: How to stop advertising fuelling the climate crisis
Tuesday, June 24
The Culture Nexus: Creativity and Climate – which I’ll be hosting!
Thursday, June 26
Animated For Impact
The Power of Communications to Inspire and Drive Positive Change
Earth Flicks & Chill x Climate Film Festival
Poetry for the Planet night
Friday, June 27
Sustainability and Climate Action Short Films Screening
Also, find The Herds, life-size nature themed puppets that will sweep through London making stops in multiple locations.
By putting culture at the heart of LCAW, we’re sending a message to the world: that creativity is not a sideshow to climate action. It is climate action.
Because London’s cultural exports don’t stay in London. They become global language. What starts on our streets, on our stages, in our studios becomes the soundtracks and screenplays of climate action everywhere.
So, let New York do the money and let Brussels do the diplomacy.
London can do the dreams.
