Learn about the UN Sustainable Development Goal #13 - Climate Action. The targets this goal follows to look to strengthen resilience and ‘adaptive capacity’ to climate hazards; improve education, raise awareness and improve ‘institutional capacity’ on mitigation, impact reduction and early warning. This webquest is best suited to upper primary ages and includes some technical terms we have explained in the educator notes.

To achieve SDG 13, a major challenge is faced as nations need to respond together to the Paris Agreement to stop temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius during this century.

Your Challenge:

Your challenge is to learn how the United Nations is working towards combating climate change for 2030 and how you can help to mitigate climate change too!

Follow this Process:

Watch this video: SDG 13 Climate Action
Discuss the five challenges presented in this video towards climate action:
1. Raise awareness to Climate Change
2. Adapt ourselves to reduce impacts by acting in a more environmentally friendly manner.
3. Plan and develop capacities for early prevention of human and natural disasters.
4. Reach by 2030 a world resilient to climate impacts.
5. Comply with the Paris Agreement not to reach 2Co for Global Warming,
Research using these websites:
1. Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
2. Progress of Goal 13 in 2017
Read the information on these webpages on Climate Action including the facts, reports and targets.
Record how this information complements your understanding on climate change and climate action? Any new statistic, new facts, achievements or challenges? What are some of the new world efforts to fight climate change?
Summarise the five challenges the UN has on climate action and any new information you have learned during this process.
Take action by thinking of ways your community is helping or can help to achieve Goal #13. Around the world more and more communities work together to find their own strategies to contribute to climate action. There are usually local environmental and social groups raising awareness about different issues such as water management, recycling, different ways to reuse waste materials or tips to consume less energy. Make a plan for how you will take action and share this with your teacher.
Talk to your class and make a list of the type of climate change problems (or issues they think contribute to climate change) they see in their community, make a map of local groups taking action for climate change and held some workshops with these people that are already involved in the community. It can also be part of a School “Climate Action” week linked to other activities to raise awareness, for example held a plastic bag recollection or workshops to learn how to create organic soil with home organic waste. Involve as many community partners as there are willing to participate, the local super markets, local organic type stores and city council recycling programs just to mention a few.
Capture and share the process you are going through to help fight climate change in your own community to inspire other people to help too. You could do this by taking photos, writing captions for each step or making a short video capturing student messages for climate action awareness.
Update your school’s website or Facebook page to keep the wider school community informed. Also - challenge other schools to do the same thing.

Educator Notes

Some important concepts:

Adaptive capacities are the ability humans, animals and nature have to adapt to the climate changes the world is going through due to the increase of temperature levels. Capacities include the opportunities people have to adjust to those changes or not. For example, if a community seems in the need to migrate because in the lands where they produce their food have become very dry, some people would have better opportunities to instal an irrigation system and stay in their community, however, others would have to migrate because of the lack of opportunities to have a solution.
Institutional Capacity: are the abilities and resources institutions (i.e. a city council, community center, school, police office and Environmental Ministry) have to help the citizens of a community to formulate strategies to adapt to climate change. Some of those abilities and resources include a budget, specialized staff to coordinate climate change community projects or channels for communication with the citizens to promote awareness of climate hazards.

Key competency links:

Thinking
Relating to others
Using language, symbols, and texts
Managing self
Participating and contributing

To make this more accessible:

Make the research part of a team challenge. Focus on the five United Nations challenges for Climate Action.
Display some of the videos recommended and give a brief introduction to the five challenges. Split the class into groups of five, one with each challenge.
Ask some reflective questions as what they think each challenge means and what they have heard about it. Do further reading using the internet or books and get students to report back to the class on what they have found out.
Focus on mapping current local initiatives for climate action and to raise awareness the negative effects of climate change. Through planning and actively taking action this will keep their interest easily and show them how to make a positive change.

To make this more challenging:

Similar steps as before, split the class into five groups for each challenge; ask them to report back to the class with more details and information on how each of the challenges can be achieved.
Encourage them to put information and visuals on a slideshow or record a short video sharing a message.
After all the presentations are finished, ask the students is they would be willing to present their work in a School “Climate Action” Week or create a poster board with their thoughts consisting on individually short answers or drawings from this activity, summarizing a challenge pointing on how action can be taken. This could be the first step for your school to become a Carbon Free space in the future!

Useful links

Sustainable production and consumption of food