Travel and transport accounted for the bulk of carbon emissions for English and French-language TV productions at CBC and Radio-Canada in 2023-24, according to the pubcaster’s latest carbon footprint reports.

The reports cover 50 CBC-affiliated in-house and independent productions and 46 Radio-Canada productions. The emissions were analyzed using the albert carbon calculator, created by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and specifically designed for productions.

The total overall emissions across 50 CBC productions for all genres and production methods was 6,979 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2023-24, at an average of 24.3 tonnes of CO2e per hour of screened content produced.

The previous report, encompassing 2022-23, covered 64 productions and reported 36 tonnes of CO2e per hour. However, the report stressed caution in making year-over-year comparisons, since the industry is still in the early stages of measuring carbon emissions and changes to the types of productions tracked each year highly impact results.

Radio-Canada’s 46 productions was an increase from 32 in the previous report. It covered 836 hours of production for a total of 2,242 tonnes of CO2e. That translates to an average of 2.6 tonnes of CO2e per hour. In 2022-23, that figure totaled one tonne, but the report attributes the increase to the higher volume of drama productions surveyed. Dramas made up 41% of productions tracked in 2023-24, compared to 11% in 2023-24.

The Radio-Canada report also exercised caution in the results, but highlighted the increased number of productions certified by Rolling Green as a positive sign for the industry.

For CBC, travel and transport accounted for 63% of emissions contributions in 2023-24, up from 43% in the last fiscal year. Materials contributed 16%, down from 23%, and filming spaces contributed 12%, down from more than 22%.

For materials, food was the biggest factor across all genres. Energy accounted for 12% of emissions, down from 22% in 2022-23.

In Radio-Canada’s report, travel and transport contributed 55.4% of emissions. Filming spaces contributed 24.8%, materials accounted for 10.5%, non-filming spaces added 5.7%, with the remaining 3.5% labelled as “other.”

Despite the increase in productions surveyed, Radio-Canada noted a decrease in the average carbon emissions per hour across all genres. Dramas generated 9.02 tonnes of CO2e per hour versus 11.49 tonnes in 2022-23, kids and youth averaged 3.05 tonnes versus 8.64 tonnes, while current affairs averaged 1.49 tonnes versus 1.82. A new category, variety and magazines, had an average of 0.55 tonnes of CO2e per hour.

For CBC, comedies and dramas were the highest-emitting genres in 2023-24, with 61.3% of total emissions, or 61.3 tonnes of CO2e per hour. According to the report, this is the equivalent of driving from Vancouver to Halifax over 40 times. The higher level of emissions were attributed to the genre’s longer shooting times, location shoots and larger crews and budgets.

The kids genre followed at 42%, factual entertainment at 6.3% and “other,” referring to news, current affairs, sports and miscellaneous entertainment, at 2.6%.

Both reports noted they were unable to adjust retroactively for productions that reported working from home, assuming a global average electricity grid of 91% gas and 9% electricity. That doesn’t reflect the realities of Ontario and Quebec, two of Canada’s largest filming jurisdictions.

In 2021, CBC committed to having 100% of its in-house productions and 50% of their independent productions measure their carbon footprint by 2026. The current report report states those figures now stand at more than 60% and 100%, respectively.

In November 2024, CBC/Radio-Canada released an environmental sustainability report, which stated the public broadcaster had cut greenhouse gas emissions by 16% since fiscal 2019-20.

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