Climate Change and Global Warming Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The projection is that warming will be relatively greater in winter and post monsoon season.

Climate model runs under the IPCC SRES emission scenarios, applied to Jharkhand and eastern India, project a rise in temperature in every season, but a larger rise in the cooler months, winter and the post-monsoon period, than in the summer and monsoon months. This matches the observed trend across India, where warming has been most marked in winter and post-monsoon.

The options naming summer, or summer with winter, reverse that seasonal pattern, and winter alone leaves out the post-monsoon season.

Answer: B

The first legally binding emission targets came from the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997 and in force from 2005, set legally binding targets for developed (Annex I) countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, by an average of about 5 per cent below 1990 levels in 2008-2012.

The Paris Agreement (2015) relies on nationally determined contributions that are not binding targets, the Montreal Protocol (1987) deals with ozone-depleting substances, and the Glasgow Climate Pact (2021) added commitments without binding targets.

Answer: B

The report was the 4th Biennial Update Report (BUR-4).

India submitted its Fourth Biennial Update Report to the UNFCCC on 30 December 2024. It presented the national greenhouse gas inventory for 2020 and reported a fall of about 7.9 per cent in emissions compared with 2019.

The third National Communication was a different report, the greenhouse gas inventory formed part of BUR-4 rather than a separate submission, and the Emissions Gap Report is published by UNEP, not by India.

Answer: C

The incorrect statement is the one claiming stratospheric aerosols are the only matter that protects against ozone depletion.

Stratospheric aerosols, such as the sulphate droplets injected by large volcanic eruptions, do not protect the ozone layer. Their surfaces host chemical reactions that convert stable chlorine compounds into active forms, so they increase ozone destruction. The same chemistry on polar stratospheric clouds drives the Antarctic ozone hole.

The other statements are broadly correct: natural substances such as hydrogen oxides, methane and nitrogen oxides take part in ozone-destroying reactions; volcanic eruptions can add chlorine to the stratosphere; and any process that releases chlorine atoms there is serious, because one chlorine atom can destroy many thousands of ozone molecules in a catalytic cycle.

Answer: B

The factor that does not fit is Industrialization.

Kerala receives heavy monsoon rain, yet droughts have become more frequent because the land holds less of it. The causes usually identified are land-use change, such as the conversion of paddy fields and wetlands and the loss of forest cover, which reduces groundwater recharge; climate change, which makes rainfall more erratic; and the degradation of hydrological systems such as rivers, ponds and aquifers.

Kerala is not a heavily industrialised state, and industrial growth is not among the drivers of its drought frequency, so it is the odd one out. The other three options are the recognised causes.

Answer: A

Statements (ii) and (iii) are correct, so the answer is Only (ii) and (iii).

The main substitutes for ozone-depleting CFCs and HCFCs are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). They contain no chlorine and so do not destroy ozone, but many of them are powerful greenhouse gases with a high global warming potential, hundreds to thousands of times that of carbon dioxide. Their growing use therefore adds to the greenhouse effect, which is why the 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol set a phase-down of HFCs.

Statement (i) is wrong: the substitutes simply stop destroying ozone; they do not produce it. Every option containing (i) is therefore wrong.

Answer: B

The major objectives are (i) and (iv), so the answer is Only (i) and (iv).

The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 operationalised the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, whose ultimate objective is to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous interference with the climate, within a time-frame that lets ecosystems adapt naturally, ensures that food production is not threatened and allows sustainable economic development.

The other two belong to other treaties. Persistent organic pollutants are controlled by the Stockholm Convention (2001), and ozone depletion by the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol (1987). Options containing (ii) or (iii) are therefore wrong.

Answer: A

Statements (i) and (iii) are correct, so the answer is Only (i) and (iii).

A carbon offset is a credit for a reduction in, or removal of, greenhouse gas emissions achieved by a project such as renewable energy or afforestation, which a buyer uses to compensate for its own emissions (i). Offsets are measured and sold in metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, one credit usually standing for one tonne (iii).

Statement (ii) describes something else: the unused emission allowances that countries with targets could trade under the Kyoto Protocol's emissions trading. Statement (iv) defines a carbon footprint, the total emissions caused by an individual or organisation over a period. Options containing (ii) or (iv) are therefore wrong.

Answer: D

India ranked 5th in the Global Climate Risk Index 2020.

The index, published by the German organisation Germanwatch in December 2019, ranks countries by how badly they were hit by weather-related disasters in the preceding year, 2018. India came fifth, owing to heavy monsoon floods, especially in Kerala, and cyclones Titli and Gaja.

14th was India's rank in the previous year's index, and 9th and 11th are not its 2020 position.

Answer: D

All three statements are correct, so the answer is All of the above.

The statements come from coverage of the UN-backed IPBES global assessment on biodiversity released in May 2019. It warned that climate change and rising seas could eventually wipe out the Sundarbans, one of the world's last and largest tiger strongholds (A), described the Sundarbans as about 10,000 square kilometres of marshland in India and Bangladesh with the world's largest mangrove forest and the Bengal tiger (B), and placed tigers among roughly 500,000 land species whose survival is in question because of habitat loss (C).

Each partial option leaves out a statement that the report supports.