Contemporary Issues faced by the UN and How it Unveiled its Weaknesses

The United Nations (UN) has been facing a plethora of challenges and issues since
its establishment in 1945. Although its primary goal is to promote intergovernmental
connections among various nations, the organization also opted to impose resolutions to
complex contemporary crises happening worldwide. This will not only enhance the
connections of countries all over the world but also improve its political and economic
stability that results to unification and solidarity of nations. Throughout the years, the UN
solidified its status as an international organization that regulates peace and order. But in
spite of the fact that the organization have its tremendous reputation and credibility, it also
suffers immensely from complicated and ever evolving contemporary issues. These issues
are not only limited to the threat of peace and order but also to recent emergence of crises
such as climate change and disinformation during the pandemic. Moreover, the
organization’s weaknesses area also inevitable due to its limited capacity to approach and
resolve the said problems.

Climate change has been a prominent concern over the past few decades since the
advent of industrialization and modernization. It has been in fact the significant result of
excessive emission of greenhouse gasses. Majority of the scientists across the globe
adamantly agree that human activities greatly influenced climate change. As cataclysmic as
it may look, we, unfortunately brought the crisis to ourselves. Gaffney and Steffen (2017)
provided evidence that ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain
glaciers show that Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient
evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of
sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is
occurring roughly 10 times faster than the average rate of warming after an ice age. Carbon
dioxide from human activities is increasing about 250 times faster than it did from natural
sources after the last Ice Age. Due to its catastrophic impact worldwide, the UN developed
the sustainable development goals (SDG’s). The United Nations (2023) argued that carbon
and emissions of greenhouse gasses must be decreased to limit global warming to 1.5
degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. By 2030, carbon pollutions must be cut by
almost half. The going concern that climate change would be alleviated using a mere
concept is impractical. That is why the UN continuously synthesized possible resolutions to
address the said issue. Thus, the organization formed an action plan to combat climate
change. This action plan is led by the United Nation’s Secretariat that implemented a 10-
year action plan. The United Nations (2019) presented a ten-year action plan in response to
the climate challenge that sets out the fundamentals of transforming its operations to achieve
ambitious reduction in greenhouse gas emissions while generating long-term efficiencies and
benefits to sustainable development efforts overall. The main goal of the plan is to mobilize
and intensify the use of renewable energy to reduce the utilization of fossil fuels.
Furthermore, innovation is imperative for the purpose of scaling up new technology that
enhances efficiency in utilizing renewable energy. Lastly, support from partnered groups help
facilitate the flow of resources through consistent communication and educational
campaigns.
 In the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, false information was spread like wildfire. In
fact, many believed that the virus was purposely created and that vaccines would eventually
kill everyone who took it. This was a major problem for the UN due to its impact to the people
especially in a situation of emergency. Information pollution is affecting the citizens’ capacity
to make informed decisions (United Nations Development Programme, 2019). They
emphasized that” disinformation, misinformation, and mal-information together with the
growth of hate speech and propaganda, especially online, are inciting social divisions and
creating mistrust in public institutions.” People mainly receive news from social media
platforms and nationally televised information due to the utilization of various media platforms
for efficient and fast dissemination of information. Thus, the general public are highly
susceptible to fallacies that manipulate, instill fear, and confusion.

In addition, The United Nations weaknesses are starting to arise despite its globalized
status. The veto power of the organization’s security council is prime evidence of its inability
to limit its power. The P5 which is composed of five permanent members of the security
council, are all powerful countries. These countries are China, Russia, France, U.K., and the
U.S. Any of them have the right to veto a resolution. The veto concept has always been
criticized to due to its influence that undermines the UN’s purpose through exercise of power
for a country’s own interest especially those countries in the P5. It was perceived by many as
undermining the democratic legitimacy of the organization, a practice that could not be
defended on the basis of any principle of just governance (Lopez-Claros, 2022). Lopez-
Claros argued that “Nonpermanent members of the Security Council accepted to be limited
by a two-thirds majority, whereas the permanent members accepted no such constraints.
More importantly, and with huge practical and political implications, some argued that a
system was being created in which the organization would not be able to deal with problems
and conflicts between the major powers or between a major power and a smaller country.”
This is true in most cases when conflicts occur and one of the countries in the P5 are the
recipients of the conflict. This happened in the Philippines wherein China extended its
territory, thus compromising the boundaries between the two states. Due to elevated
disputes, it was settled by the international court of justice with the Philippines winning the
trial. Although the issue had already been settled, China is still hovering and disturbing the
territory of the West Philippine Sea.

Today, the United Nations is still facing problems that are becoming more complex
and more difficult to solve. Conflicts between countries, peace, and economic prosperity
were once the primarily goals of the organization. Eventually, it changed through time due to
some factors contributing to the creation of ever-evolving contemporary issues such as
climate change, disease outbreaks and many more. On the other hand, the organization’s
authority is hindering its progress to ultimately limit the abuse of power due to the use of
veto. It develops a gap on how to resolve conflicts between countries that are permanent
members of the UN. Hence, this challenge became a weakness of the organization that is
generally difficult to approach. But despite the hurdles, the United Nations is finding more
ways and constructing innovative methods to approach modern issues that require modern
solutions.
Augusto Lopez-Claros. (2022). The Origins of the UN Veto and Why it Should be Abolished
Retrieved from https://globalgovernanceforum.org/origins-un-veto-why-it-should-be-
abolished/

O. Gaffney, W. Steffen. (2017). "The Anthropocene Equation." The Anthropocene Review 4,

issue 1: 53-61. IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, WG1, Chapter 2
Vostok ice core data; NOAA Mauna Loa CO2 record
Retrieved from https://doi.org/abs/10.1177/2053019616688022

United Nations. (2023). Sustainable Development Goals

Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/climate-change/

The United Nations Development Programme. (2023). Countering misinformation and

disinformation in the crisis setting.
Retrieved from https://www.undp.org/eurasia/dis/misinformation

United Nations Secretariat. (2019). Climate Action Plan 2020-2023

Retrieved from https://www.un.org/management/sites/www.un.org.management/files/united-
nations-secretariat-climate-action-plan.pdf