System Update

“System change not climate change” is something you often hear shouted at a climate protest. System Update is our new documentary that tries to unpack that. This is the second film I’ve produced with Global Documentary. The first, The Race is On: Secrets and Solutions of Climate, was released in 2019. It ended up doing quite well having screenings across the world. Making the film was for me a new experience and a lot of hard work. I remember after the very final edit was finished saying that I never wanted to do that again.

But here we are in 2025. Somewhere along the way director Paul Maple convinced me to put on a jacket and walk around the streets and countryside of the UK doing pieces to camera (being ever mindful of Charlie Brooker’s savage critique of this particular TV trope).

Fortunately, Paul was also able to get fantastic contributions from:

Denise Baden, Professor of Sustainable Business University of Southampton
Alice Bell, Head of Policy, Climate and Health Welcome
Richard Betts MBE, Head of Climate Impacts Research, Met Office Hadley Centre & University of Exeter
Manda Brookman, Director, Permanently Brilliant.
Kathryn Brown OBE, Director of climate change evidence, Wildlife Trust
Christelle Blunden, Extinction Rebellion
Dylan Hamilton, Climate justice campaigner
Jason Hickle, Professor, Institute for Environmental Science & Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona
Farhana Yamin, Environmental lawyer, climate change & development policy expert
Laurie Laybourn, Researcher, author, strategist
Col McCail, Activist, writer
Leo Murray, Energy & transport decarbonisation specialist, co-founder of Riding Sunbeams,
Dylan Plummer, Climate advisor, Sierra Club
Max Wakefield, Deputy Programme Director, Greenpeace UK

The net result is in some ways a new type of climate change documentary. It acknowledges that dangerous climate change is here and very likely to get worse. It doesn’t shy away from seemingly impossible politics, but it doesn’t give up. By being honest about the scale of the challenge we face, it helps force open a conversation on how we could really change our societies for the better.

I hope you like it. If you do, then please share it!

Next week I will get back to exploring climate overshoot.