IIED's best of 2025: videos

1. Far Away from Home

Around 16% of all refugees in Kenya live in urban areas, mainly in Nairobi. This film, developed by young filmmakers, urban refugees and researchers, captures the refugees’ everyday challenges and hopes. 

Through intimate interviews and footage, the documentary highlights critical issues such as the struggle for proper documentation, encounters with discrimination and the persistent threat of police harassment and arrest.  

Awarded a prize at the Documentaries Without Borders International Film Festival, the film shows the intricate ways policy challenges intersect with daily lives, but also shines a light on the rich contributions migrants make to Nairobi's culture and economy.

This was the most watched video on IIED’s YouTube channel in 2025, and the institute also hosted an event in February that screened the film as part of exploring city responses to refugee hosting from the global South and North.

2. Most countries miss UN climate plan deadline

By 10 February, only 13 countries had submitted their 2035 climate targets as they were required to do under the Paris Agreement, just 7% of signatories to the agreement. 

This reflected a concerning lack of political leadership in addressing climate change and Tom Mitchell, IIED’s executive director, was interviewed by BBC News about what these targets represented and why swift and bold action was needed as global warming accelerates. 

The submission numbers were highlighted as part of research under IIED's hidden handbrakes campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the lesser-known blockers to action on climate change.

3. Gender, climate and biodiversity: leveraging data for inclusive policymaking

Ahead of the 69th Commission on the Status of Women in March, IIED highlighted how decision-making could be better informed by closing the data gap at the gender-environment-climate nexus.

Advocating a ‘whole-of-society approach’ to data, IIED called for more recognition of the contributions of non-state actors in the collection and generation of valuable data and evidence, and for that data to be better integrated in policymaking.

As part of work to advance gender-just climate and environmental action through the use of accessible, intersectional data in decision-making spaces, IIED has launched the Gender Environment Hub to spotlight evidence on the complex links between gender inequalities and the impacts of climate and environmental change.

4. IIED explains: Reforming the global financial system

The latest video in the IIED Explains series, released before the International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in June, spells out why urgent reform is needed to the international financial architecture.

Led by institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and multilateral development banks, this architecture is meant to support sustainable development, climate action, reverse the loss of nature and reduce poverty.

These institutions should be helping climate-vulnerable countries access resources to build resilience and drive locally-led solutions. But in practice, power is tightly held with those who hold the money, which is entrenching injustices and perpetuating inequality.

5. Make Change Happen 33: Locally-led nature restoration: critical for a sustainable future

Six episodes of IIED’s Make Change Happen podcast were released in 2025, and the most popular episode on YouTube explored the critical role of communities in restoring nature and strengthening climate resilience.

Launched to coincide with Earth Day in April, Ritchel Cahilig from the Haribon Foundation joined IIED researcher Francesca Booker to discuss the critical role local leadership plays not only in restoring nature itself but in conserving local culture, identity and communities too.

This episode also highlighted the role of Reversing Environmental Degradation in Africa and Asia (REDAA), a programme that supports research and action by offering grants and facilitating mutual learning.

This episode also highlighted the role of Reversing Environmental Degradation in Africa and Asia (REDAA), a programme that supports research and action by offering grants and facilitating mutual learning.

6. A just energy transition? Impacts on Indigenous lands in Argentina

While the world races towards a greener future, the global energy transition is deepening historical injustices in Indigenous territories in northern Argentina. This film shares the voices and perspectives of Indigenous communities who are raising urgent questions about what a “just transition” really means.

Often presented as a universal solution to climate change, the energy transition can reproduce extractive, colonial models that exclude communities who have long protected their lands.

This film invites viewers to reflect on how the global agenda for the energy transition must change – not just in terms of technology, but in terms of justice, governance and rights.

7. Development and Climate Days 2025: key messages for COP30

The 2025 Development and Climate Days (D&C Days) event in October brought together 370 grassroots representatives, political leaders, policymakers, negotiators and researchers to discuss the real issues that should be tackled at the UN climate conference (COP30) – and this short video summarises the key messages. 

Participants highlighted the urgency to empower local actors and foster continuous learning, showcased how innovative insurance mechanisms could be game-changers for climate adaptation, and emphasised that unlocking private finance for action on climate and nature requires trust, transparency and a shared understanding. 

These key messages and asks were taken to COP30 in Brazil the following month. Recordings of every D&C Days session are also available on IIED’s YouTube channel.

8. Struggles against forced eviction in the area of climate change: an audiovisual exchange

Experiencing a forced eviction is one of the most violent events a community can encounter. Forced evictions constitute "a gross violation of human rights" – yet climate change, and the responses to it, is bringing new threats of forced displacements.

This video summarises a series of short films produced exchanges about forced evictions and climate change in Chile, Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia and Kenya. Read more and watch all the individual films.

9. Setting the scene for the summit: LCRFS opening plenary

A number of IIED’s videos during 2025 were recordings of events, both webinars and in-person seminars and conferences, but none had the profile of the opening session of the 2025 London Climate Resilience Finance Summit (LCRFS) in June.

Keynote addresses by Brazil Minister of Environment and Climate Change Marina Silva and European Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth Wopke Hoekstra were followed by a high-level opening panel with leading voices from a range of actors at the heart of the climate-resilience finance community.

More than 450 climate finance leaders were at the high-profile event, organised by IIED as part of London Climate Action Week, which marked a significant milestone in efforts to bridge the massive funding gap for climate adaptation and resilience worldwide.

10. Unlocking resilience through bottom-up research-action

IIED’s most recent video, launched this month, shows how communities in India, Kenya, Myanmar and the Philippines are pioneering powerful, practical solutions to strengthen urban resilience. 

With cities in low- and middle-income countries growing at unprecedented speed, the greatest impact will fall on people living in informal settlements. IIED and partners are supporting urban living labs – collaborative spaces that enable communities, city authorities, researchers and civil society organisations to jointly design, test and scale new approaches to resilience.