MTV Switch Campaign-Climate Series

Halo everyone,

These 2 months have been hectic for me. I will post entries on them soon. In the mean time, I would like to share some inspiring stories on Climate Change with you. =)

TVE press release

Launch of new Climate Change series to reach Global Youth Audiences on air, online and on mobile phones via MTV’s SWITCH Campaign

London 10 September: A new series of Element, co-produced by TVE, is at the heart of a package of films and public service announcements (PSAs) being launched by MTV Networks International as part of its Global Climate Change Campaign - MTV Switch.

The Element Climate Change Series will be made available across MTV’s global network of 165 localized TV channels in 162 countries, reaching a potential audience of 560 million viewers worldwide. Five new Element films will be presented to MTV’s global audience of 16-24 year olds alongside cutting edge PSAs produced by a stable of top European and US creative agencies. Both PSAs and Element films will also be available for viewing on MTV Switch’s website, www.MTVSWITCH.org and on the Element website www.element-tv.net

The producers of the new Element series worked closely with TVE and a team from Internews to scour the globe, from Rio to Tehran, to find young people reacting in very different ways – through their own design brilliance, entrepreneurial nous, and web savvyness – to the challenges of global warming.

The films follow the stories of five exceptional individuals who’ve decided to tackle climate change head on. They include:
- Harsha, winner of the Australian Young Designer of the Year award for his blueprint for ‘The Globetrotter’, an almost fossil fuel-free, bio-plastic molded car
- Bremley, who is fighting deforestation and desertification in his native Northeast India
- Courtney, a young American living in Oxford, UK, who manages carbon offsetting projects around the world
- Igor, a Brazilian student whose prolific urban food gardens are slowly spreading across Rio de Janeiro
- Sepehr, celebrated as Iran’s Best Environmental Blogger.

“For the new Element series for MTV we’ve worked with TVE to confront both the sceptics who think that climate change is just too big to tackle - and those who hope that just changing their light bulbs is enough,” say Element Producers Mark Harvey and Emily McDowell. “Our five characters are from a new generation of climate responders who will connect with an MTV audience looking for people who embody lifestyle change - rather than preaching about it.”

MTV Switch was created to provoke, entertain, and encourage change among young people”, says John Jackson, Director of Social Responsibility at MTV International. “We are thrilled and honoured to work with such forward-thinking, creative agencies in producing compelling work to continue to engage youth on this extremely important global issue."

“The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) commends the MTV SWITCH campaign for commissioning programming that combines entertainment with real world examples of youth engagement in climate change,” says UNEP Director of Communications, Satinder Bindra. “It is fascinating to see how many of the young Element entrepreneurs already have their feet firmly in the new carbon economy that UNEP is promoting. These films will reach global TV and internet audiences during exactly the period that the UN will be convening vital international negotiations in the run up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009, and have the potential to galvanize action and inspire leadership within dozens of communities and across a generation of MTV viewers that will face the challenges of climate change like none other before it.”

The new Element Climate Series is available from TVE to educators worldwide for use in schools and universities, and for screenings at conferences and special events. A sixth Element film profiling Jeff - a pioneer in virtual reality and climate change teleconferencing - will be presented to delegates and climate policy-makers meeting at the Poznan UN Climate negotiations in December 2008.

The Element Climate Change Series is a co-production between the Element Partnership and TVE, produced with the support of Internews, the European Commission’s EuropeAid Cooperation Office, Oxfam-Novib and the Com + Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development that includes UNEP, the World Bank and the Reuters Foundation.

Best Regards,
Pei Ling