Climate Spring Introduces New Development Fund

Climate Spring has launched a new development fund for global unscripted TV and factual entertainment and hired David Leach as head of unscripted to spearhead the fund.

The new fund will provide finance opportunities for production companies and creatives with innovative concepts for unscripted programs. It will focus on supporting unscripted programs related to the transition away from polluting fossil fuels, ranging from shows on home renovation, nature-friendly farming, cooking shows, competitive formats and more.

The fund is looking to develop shows in the English-language market globally, as well as for European audiences. Climate Spring aims to reach mainstream audiences with new formats that engage viewers in climate solutions rather than scare them or make them feel guilty.

Leach will spearhead the fund and build partnerships in the unscripted production community. He previously held the role of head of development at Boom TV and also served as a development producer and executive at a range of indies, including Multistory, True North and Icon Films.

“This is a really exciting opportunity to build momentum within the unscripted community around an issue that we all face together,” Leach said. “Broadcasters are increasingly asking for ideas in the climate space, and I hope to work with production companies to offer innovative and entertaining climate content that reaches underserved audiences. With this fund, I also want to offer indies space to take more creative risks, especially in fact-ent.”

Lucy Stone, founder and director of Climate Spring, added, “Mainstream television has a really powerful role to play in normalizing, demystifying and engaging people in solutions for the climate crisis. Climate solutions are all there ready to be adopted—but most people do not know this. There is a lot of fear and misinformation on the climate crisis, and we know that people are really worried about it. But as a society, we are also dealing with the increased cost of living and all the other pressures of life. We believe that making people feel guilty on top of anxiety won’t help us in tackling this crisis. With this new unscripted development fund, we will harness the power of TV to accelerate the creation of content that shows us new social norms, normalizes climate solutions and makes low carbon the default. This is about more than showing individual actions; it’s about creating new cultural norms.”