Don't Choose Extinction

Don't Choose Extinction was made in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). A computer-generated dinosaur took the floor in the UN General Assembly hall and put one question to the world's leaders: why are you still subsidising the fossil fuels that are wiping you out? Voiced in several languages by a cast of well-known actors, the film carried UNDP's research on fossil fuel subsidies to a global audience.

We ran the campaign through our own media platform and from our studio in Glasgow, where a live counter on the wall ticked upward in real time through the public money being paid to fossil fuels while the conference debated how to end it.

UNDP's research put the number at USD 423 billion a year spent subsidising fossil fuels for consumers — four times the climate finance being asked for on behalf of the world's poorest countries, and almost USD 6 trillion once indirect costs are counted, according to the IMF. Around half of the support for fossil fuel consumption in developing countries benefits the richest fifth of the population.

It was the largest and least discussed obstacle in the room: an enormous public sum, paid continuously, in the opposite direction to every stated goal, and a figure nobody was putting in front of the public.

• Made with UNDP, launched ahead of the G20 and COP26 in 2021.
• USD 423 billion a year in direct consumer fossil fuel subsidies — four times the climate finance sought for poorer countries.
• The film reached an audience of around two billion people worldwide.
• At COP26 fossil fuel subsidies were named in a final COP text for the first time.

The film reached around two billion viewers and the counter drew sustained attention across the conference.

At COP26, fossil fuel subsidies were named in the final text for the first time. We would not claim that outcome as ours; we would say we helped make it impossible to leave out.