Trade associations AnimFrance and Animation Ireland have joined forces to bring the Carbulator animation carbon calculator to Ireland—marking an important step in the tool’s international rollout.

As part of the plan, Screen Ireland enlisted studios Cartoon Saloon (Silly Sundays, Puffin Rock) and Kavaleer to pilot the upcoming Irish-language version of the French-built tool. Screen Ireland is providing financing to localize it and translate it into Irish, said Animation Ireland CEO Ronan McCabe (pictured) during a sustainability workshop at MIP today. This pilot project aims to gauge Carbulator’s suitability for Irish studios, which have previously used the albert live-action calculator.

“We know our carbon footprint is greater than the measurements we’re getting at the moment through albert,” said McCabe. “We want to use Carbulator.”

This is a first step in growing Carbulator into a single tool that animation producers across Europe—and beyond—can use to measure their carbon footprint, says Philippe Alessandri, president of Animation in Europe, the org that helped broker the AnimFrance/Animation Ireland partnership.

Alessandri says this is important because 80% of the European animation business is co-productions, and producers have reported challenges with using multiple tools—many of which aren’t made for animation productions. It’s impossible to get accurate data this way, he says, plus it takes time to collect and combine different types of data to present to funders. Having one commonly used tool that takes animation into account would solve these problems.

Measuring and reporting carbon emissions is expected to become standard across the animation industry—and in some markets, it’s already a prerequisite for greenlighting projects or securing financing.

For example, before renewing or commissioning projects, all major British broadcasters require producers to report data quantifying their carbon footprint and develop a plan to reduce emissions. In France, all animation producers seeking funding from the financing body National Centre for Cinema and Moving Image (CNC) need to provide assessments of the content’s carbon footprint. Ireland is expected to implement this type of mandatory requirement in the near future, noted McCabe.

The CNC has accredited Carbulator, and it has already been used in more than 100 assessments since March 2025. The end goal is to make it the one tool producers can use for all animation, adds Alessandri.

AnimFrance, MIAM! Animation and other French studios developed Carbulator to help French producers more easily calculate these emissions. Through Carbulator, producers can input their emissions data and then allocate the results to different parts of the production, including hardware and its teams. Other calculators are made for live-action productions—and as a result, they only calculate filming-related emissions.

Animation in Europe is also in talks to get Belgium engaged in a similar project for testing Carbulator in that market, Alessandri adds.

“There’s France, Belgium and Ireland, and let’s enlarge the club as much as possible,” he said in a special workshop during MIP this morning. “And then we can approach the US and tell them we have a tool we can use on their productions.”

Animation in Europe, alongside the European Commission, Relais Culture Europe and the Creative Europe Desk in France, organized the workshop titled “How to Make Animation Production More Sustainable?” with the aim of getting European and international stakeholders to collaborate on improving the industry’s sustainability efforts.

Representatives from the audiovisual industries in the Czech Republic, Spain, the Nordics (where mandatory sustainability requirements are coming next year), Italy and Belgium were at the workshop and all expressed interest in the tool.

A new framework called the European Green Standards for Animation was also unveiled at the workshop. Designed as a sustainability “seal of approval,” it will recognize productions that meet high environmental standards. Developed by Green Film, Ecoprod and Cine Regio, the initiative will include a practical checklist to guide studios through measurable sustainable actions, with a full rollout targeted for 2026.

This seal will be complementary to Carbulator, and studios that use the calculator should have an easier time getting the label—which will be a clear sign to show funders of a production’s carbon-reduction efforts, notes Alessandri.

One of the workshop’s key takeaways is that these changes will impact what gets commissioned, so producers around the world need to be smart about the tools they use.

“I don’t know where it’ll end,” said McCabe, referencing Ireland now adopting Carbulator. “But we’re heading in the right direction.”