Hello.

My name is Ms. Ikomi and I am a teacher from London.

I'm going to be taking you through today's lesson.

We've got lots to get through, so we're going to get started.

Today's lesson is called, What is the role of the UN in climate action and sustainability? It is part of the wider unit, How effective is the UN and the Sustainable Development Goals on promoting sustainability? By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to explain how the UN is working to end the climate crisis.

The keywords we're going to hear in today's lesson are: climate action.

These are the efforts taken to combat climate change and the impacts of climate change.

United Nations, also referred to as the UN as an abbreviation.

This is an international organisation comprising of most countries in the world, which aims to promote peace, security, and international cooperation.

The Sustainable Development Goals, which we'll also call SDGs.

These are the UN's global goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

We're going to hear these moving through today's lesson, so keep an eye out.

We're going to start today's lesson by thinking about, why is climate action necessary? Climate change refers to the long-term shift in temperature and weather patterns.

Since the 1800s, human activity has been a key driver of changes to the Earth's climate, so thinking about the temperature, but also the other things that go alongside when that temperature changes.

For example, the burning of fossil fuels releases emissions into the atmosphere which contribute to the formation of a layer that traps heat from the sun.

This leads to rising global temperatures.

So we've got an example there of how humans' activities through burning fossil fuels has directly contributed to that change.

Climate change is recognised as a significant challenge to the future stability of humanity.

Izzy's telling us, we use fossil fuels for lots of different reasons.

Coal, oil, and natural gas are used to power things like cars, for factories, to generate electricity that we all use.

This makes everyday life easier, which is why we've gotten used to using these types of fuels.

Laura's telling us it's not easy to just stop using these fossil fuels because they're cheap and also widely available.

That means that we have got access to them easily and therefore they've become a major part of our energy systems, which is why it's not super easy to do.

Let's do a check of what we've done so far.

How do people use fossil fuels? Pause your video and see if you can list some ways.

You might have included: the fact that people burn them in power stations to create electricity, people might use them in their homes for heating, some cars use fossil fuels in order to run.

Well done if you included some of those.

Climate change could have a serious impact on humanity if we don't take effective action to undo some of the things that are happening.

Some of those effects might include impacts on human health, displacement of people around the world, and resource scarcity.

We already see some of these impacts coming up, but this is something that could become progressively worse.

Climate change affects different regions differently.

Lower income countries, which contribute the least to climate change, are already experiencing the most severe impacts, such as extreme weather, rising seas, and droughts.

However, they also have fewer resources in order to adapt to those changes.

We're going to start by thinking about health and the impact that climate change can have on our health.

Extreme weather events such as flooding are becoming more frequent and intense.

That causes harm to humans.

Changing weather patterns also affect the spread of diseases.

For example, animal habitats could be destroyed, and that means that species that carry diseases are moving closer to human populations, whereas previously they would've lived further away.

That increases the risk of diseases like Ebola from spreading to humans, which is gonna have an impact on people's health.

Let's do another check.

Which of the following is a health impact of climate change? Is it A, climate change is improving food security, leading to better nutrition and overall health; B, humans are encountering more extreme weather, which is leading to increase in disease; or C, changing weather patterns are reducing the spread of disease like malaria by affecting insect populations? Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer was B.

Another impact of climate change is the displacement of people.

Climate change is displacing more people and creating what we call climate refugees.

A refugee is somebody who moved to a different country to escape persecution, war, or natural disaster, so climate refugees are specific to this type of natural disaster.

In the past 10 years, approximately 23.

1 million people have been forced from their homes.

People might be displaced for a variety of different reasons, things like extreme weather events, rising sea levels, droughts, and the destruction of vital resources like food and water, meaning that people have to move somewhere else because there isn't adequate resources where they're currently living.

Aisha's telling us, "Increasing temperatures can make outdoor work unsafe, especially industries like agriculture.

People may have no other choice but to move in such of safer work and better living conditions." Lucas is telling us another example.

"Floods can destroy homes and businesses, forcing people to move and rebuild their lives elsewhere." Pacific Island Nations, such as Tuvalu and French Polynesia, face significant risks, because rising sea levels threaten to submerge their territories.

These islands already face dangerous storms and sea surges, and soon many people will need to relocate to safer areas because of where they're located geographically.

Let's do another check.

Why might a person become a climate refugee? Is it A, their home and business might be destroyed by floods; B, they may leave their home to find sunnier weather; or C, they may move to find better education opportunities? Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer is A, their home and business might be destroyed by floods.

The last impact we're going to think about is resource scarcity.

Climate change is affecting agriculture by reducing the fertile land and altering growing conditions.

That means that as temperatures rise, some regions are facing food scarcity.

Scarcity is where we don't have enough of something or we have a small amount of something.

As resources like food become harder to obtain, competition between them may increase.

That means that we might have conflict between communities that are trying to get adequate resources to support themselves.

Resource scarcity will increase poverty worldwide.

As resources become harder to obtain, prices will increase, so that means that lots of people who previously might have been able to afford them might no longer be able to afford them.

That is likely going to cause more suffering in lower income countries, because there are less resources in general.

Let's do another check.

I'd like you to change two words in the sentences below to make it accurate.

Pause your video now and we'll check our answers in a bit.

Let's check our answers.

We could have changed the following two words, so the sentence reads: as resources become more scarce, the prices will increase.

Increasing the prices will force more people into poverty as they spend to obtain these essentials.

Let's put this into practise.

Sam is telling us the following statement.

"Climate change will have little impact on humans and will be easily managed in the future.

We don't need to worry about it right now." I'd like you to write a short statement responding to Sam.

In your statement, make sure that you explain two impacts of climate change and explain why climate action is needed.

Pause your video and have a go at this now.

I asked you to respond to Sam's statement.

You might have said, "Sam, I disagree that climate change will be easily managed.

It is already having a significant impact.

In the last 10 years, climate change has displaced 23.

1 million people, making them climate refugees.

This number will likely rise due to flooding, resource shortages, and rising sea levels threatening entire nations.

Climate change is a major threat to human health.

Rising temperatures are making it harder for people to work outside, and some are risking their health to do so.

As animals carrying diseases are forced into human areas, the spread of diseases like Ebola is increasing.

As these examples show, action is urgent.

Without it, humans will face ongoing health issues and loss of homes.

We must change quickly to protect humanity's future." Well done if you included some of that in your answer.

Next we're going to think about what power does the UN have to bring about change in this area? We know from our keyword definition that the United Nations, also called the UN, is an international organisation that meets at the UN General Assembly in New York City.

It operates under the UN Charter.

A charter is where all of the rules for an organisation are written out.

This was established when the UN was founded in 1945.

In 2025, the UN had 193 member states.

That's almost every country around the world.

The preamble of the UN Charter states: "To establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained." This means that the UN works to ensure that all countries respect the agreements that they make with each other under international law.

So it's a really important organisation for ensuring collaboration and communication between the different countries that are members.

Sofia's asking, "How is it possible for an organisation based in New York to establish conditions for justice and respect in countries all over the world?" This is a really good question.

The UN has a range of abilities in order to do this very important work, including: hard power.

When you use hard power, it includes tools like military force, economic sanctions, and political pressure.

The UN has peacekeeping forces that can be deployed, and this looks a little bit like military forces.

However, they're not intended for military invasions.

They are intended to respond to situations and maintain peace if invited into a nation.

The UN may also take collective action.

So that is where countries come together to do something.

That might look like imposing sanctions or excluding a country from certain international activities.

Sanctions might be economic, which would have an effect on a country's ability to fund themselves.

Another way is through soft power.

This is more typical comparatively to hard power.

Soft power includes cultural and economic influences.

The UN uses lots of different forms of this globally.

They might build schools and hospitals, monitor elections to ensure that they are free and fair, organise discussions and debates to raise awareness.

So we can see the distinction between hard and soft power, one being more forceful, the second trying to persuade people to come round to the view.

Let's check what we've done so far.

Which of these is a type of soft power tactic that the UN might deploy? Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer is C, deploy election monitors to a country to check that the election is held fairly.

The UN has been active worldwide since its founding in 1945.

It was founded after the Second World War to create connection between countries and hopefully stop anything like that from happening again.

The UN has worked with individual countries across many nations to address lots of global issues.

Its success is often difficult to define.

There is an ongoing debate about how useful the United Nations is as an organisation because of this.

For example, the UN has been working to end conflicts directly since 1948 by deploying peacekeeping forces to help stop wars.

Countries where the UN peacekeepers have been deployed include Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mozambique, Namibia, and Tajikistan.

Laura's telling us, "Peacekeeping involves troops from the UN member nations being deployed under the UN flag." So even though they come from specific countries, they're not representing that country.

They're representing the UN.

The UN deployed peacekeepers to Cote d'Ivoire, a western African country, in 2004.

This is because there was a breakdown in the government which put civilians at risk.

Over the following decade, the peacekeeping forces achieved the following: they disarmed 70,000 soldiers and returned them to society, they returned 250,000 refugees to the country who had fled, they oversaw two peaceful elections, they set up a functioning police force and recruited 18,000 officers.

All of these things can be seen as successes of the UN peacekeeping mission.

And ultimately, the impact of all this work together saw the economy grow by 9%.

Let's do another check.

Which of the following was not an impact of the peacekeeping work in Cote d'Ivoire? Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer was A.

The army was expanded so they could fight their neighbours better.

That was not an impact of the peacekeeping work.

Despite these successes that we've seen in this example, there are critics who argue that the UN has faced challenges in fulfilling its mission and therefore may not be as successful in some of the other goals.

One common criticism is that the UN spends a significant amount of time discussing issues but takes longer to act and actually follow through.

This has been especially clear during the war in Ukraine.

Lots of countries around the world have said that Russia's invasion is wrong, but the UN has found it difficult to stop Russia or punish it.

This is because Russia is a powerful member of the UN Security Council, a special group that makes important decisions.

Russia can say no, or veto, any decision that the UN tries to make against it, for example, stopping trade or other actions, because of its role as a permanent member of the Security Council.

So therefore, we can see a disconnect between what the UN is talking about doing and having the power to actually instigate those changes.

An important part of the UN's work, particularly related to climate change, is the Sustainable Development Goals.

There are 17 goals that are adopted by all UN member states.

They aim to make the development of all countries more equal and reduce the gap between higher income countries and lower income countries and their development.

Take a minute to read through some of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Although we can see examples of things that are directly related to the environment, things like climate action or supporting life on land, there are also other goals that are related to development and reducing poverty, for example, Zero Hunger or Clean Water and Sanitation.

Let's do a check.

Climate action is not one of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Is this true or false? The correct answer is false.

This is because the UN recognised that climate change is a barrier to development, and so tackling the climate crisis is a Sustainable Development Goal.

The Sustainable Development Goals are meant to be achieved by 2030, with all member states contributing to their implementation.

While there has been some progress, there's also been stagnation and even regression, so going backwards, in certain areas.

The 2024 report indicates that progress on the Climate Action goal has only been marginal.

The UN are working hard on the Sustainable Development Goals.

They use a range of soft power strategies to implement the goals.

For example, they hold conferences where issues like gender equality are discussed.

On the issue of climate change, the UN have continued to fund scientific research into the impact and causes of climate change.

The Sustainable Development Goals, which play a key role in decision-making, have made progress, but may not have significantly closed the development gap yet.

While the UN has made some gains towards these goals, progress has been gradual and harder to measure, so some critics argue that the substantial investment in the UN since 1945 could have led to more noticeable improvements.

Where is that money being spent that is actually being seen? This is an argument some make.

Which of the following statements best describes the UN's approach to achieving Sustainable Development Goals? Pause your video and choose your answer now.

The correct answer was B.

The UN holds conferences and funds research on issues relating to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Let's put this into practise.

I'm going to read a statement and I'd like you to discuss the statement, offering at least one argument for and one argument against it, particularly focusing on how the UN works to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the use of soft power and other strategies.

The statement you're going to discuss is: the Sustainable Development Goals show that the UN does not have real power.

Pause your video and start your discussion now.

I asked you to discuss the statement, the Sustainable Development Goals show that the UN does not have real power.

You might have said: "One argument that the UN does not have real power is because despite the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals, progress has been slow.

For example, in the area of climate action, the 2024 report showed that progress has been marginal.

Critics argue that the UN spends too much time discussing issues at conferences or in debate, but doesn't take time to do immediate action.

The UN also faces challenges in using hard power effectively.

A good example of this is the situation with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, where the UN couldn't impose sanctions due to Russia's position on the Security Council.

This shows that in some cases, the UN's power to make meaningful decision is blocked, limiting its ability to make change." On the other side, you might have said: "However, the UN does have real power in its ability to use soft power strategies to promote the Sustainable Development Goals.

For example, it funds scientific research on climate change and its impacts, contributing to global awareness and action.

The UN also holds international conferences where global issues like gender equality, health, and climate action are discussed, helping to shape policies worldwide.

Furthermore, the UN has been able to make a positive difference in certain countries.

For example, in Cote d'Ivoire, UN peacekeepers successfully disarmed soldiers, returned refugees, and set up a functioning police force.

These actions led to a more stable government, a 9% growth in the economy, and the holding of peaceful elections.

This shows that while the UN may face challenges in some areas, it still plays a crucial role in addressing global issues and working towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals." Today, we have been learning about what is the role of the UN in climate action and sustainability.

We have learnt that climate change poses serious challenges to humanity, with impacts including health issues, displacement of people, and resource scarcity.

Low income countries are often most affected, despite contributing less to the problem.

The UN has both hard and soft power to bring about change.

Through hard power, it can impose sanctions and deploy peacekeepers, though its influence is sometimes limited by political challenges.

More often, the UN uses soft power, such as funding research, organising discussions, and supporting development projects like the Sustainable Development Goals.

Whilst its ability to act quickly can be restricted, the UN plays a crucial role in shaping global policies and working towards long-term change.

That's the end of today's lesson.

Thank you for joining me.