Which of the following statements about ‘Marrakech Partnership’ is/are correct? 1. It is an intergovernmental partnership for global climate action. 2. It is not only an intergovernmental partnership for global climate action but also a collaboration between governments and other stakeholders like cities, businesses and investors. 3. This partnership is guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)1 and 3 only
- (c)1, 2 and 3
- (d)2 only
Correct — C, 1, 2 and 3. The Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action was launched by the first High-Level Champions at COP22 in Marrakech in 2016, inside the intergovernmental UNFCCC process, which is what statement 1 records. Statement 2 adds the fuller description: the launch document says the Partnership supports voluntary collaboration between Parties and non-Party stakeholders, naming civil society, the private sector, financial institutions, cities and other subnational authorities, local communities and indigenous peoples — so it is not governments alone. Statement 3 is right too: the same document ties the Partnership to the Sustainable Development Goals and to the 2030 Agenda, noting the interlinkages between the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement.
- (a)1 and 2 only — Drops the link to the 2030 Agenda, but the founding document makes that link explicitly and treats climate action under SDG 13 as decisive for the other Goals.
- (b)1 and 3 only — Drops the very feature the Partnership was created for. Bringing non-Party actors — cities, businesses and investors — into the formal climate process is its entire purpose.
- (d)2 only — Rejects statement 1 as though 'intergovernmental' were false. It is not: the Partnership was launched within the UNFCCC by Champions appointed under a COP decision, so its intergovernmental anchoring is real even though it reaches beyond governments.
The Paris Agreement of 2015 recognised that national pledges alone would not close the emissions gap, and created two High-Level Champions to mobilise action by actors who are not Parties to the Convention. Their first act, at COP22 in Marrakech in 2016, was to launch the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action as a standing framework connecting governments with cities, regions, companies, investors and civil society. It works by convening these actors, showcasing initiatives, tracking voluntary commitments and feeding the results into the UNFCCC's own processes; the commitments themselves are recorded on the Global Climate Action portal.
Statements 1 and 2 look as if they contradict each other, and that is where the difficulty lies. Read carefully, they do not: statement 1 says what the Partnership is anchored in, and statement 2 says who takes part. Both are true at once, because the Partnership is an intergovernmental creation whose whole design is to draw in non-governmental actors. When a code item offers a narrow statement and a wider statement about the same body, check whether the narrow one is actually false before rejecting it — here it is merely incomplete, and UPSC's key takes both. As of the 2024 exam the Partnership had run for eight COP cycles; it has continued since, and its work now runs through the annual Climate Action Pathways and the yearly Global Climate Action reports.
- The Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action was launched at COP22, Marrakech, in 2016 by the first High-Level Champions.
- It supports voluntary collaboration between Parties and non-Party stakeholders — civil society, the private sector, financial institutions, cities and other subnational authorities, local communities and indigenous peoples.
- Its founding document links it to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development alongside the Paris Agreement.
- Voluntary commitments made under it are recorded on the UNFCCC's Global Climate Action portal.
A narrow statement is not a false one; check whether it is wrong before rejecting it in favour of the wider version.
- Treating statements 1 and 2 as mutually exclusive; the Partnership is intergovernmental in origin and multi-stakeholder in membership.
- Confusing the Marrakech Partnership with the Marrakesh Accords of 2001, which were about the operating rules of the Kyoto Protocol.
- Assuming any UNFCCC initiative is binding; the commitments gathered under this Partnership are voluntary.
Asked as a three-statement code item about a named international initiative, with two of the statements deliberately overlapping.
"Momentum for Change: Climate Neutral Now" is an initiative launched by
- (a) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- (b) The UNEP Secretariat
- (c) The UNFCCC Secretariat
- (d) The World Meteorological Organization
Answer(c) The UNFCCC Secretariat — the same body that houses the Marrakech Partnership's work.
The same habit of examining named UNFCCC initiatives by their parent body. Sorting IPCC from UNEP from the UNFCCC secretariat is the skill both items reward.
Consider the following statements: 1. The International Solar Alliance was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2015. 2. The Alliance includes all the member countries of the United Nations. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(a) 1 only — the ISA was launched at COP21 in Paris, but membership is open rather than universal.
Another initiative launched at a COP and tested on who belongs to it — the same two axes, origin and membership, that decide the present item.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action was launched at which Conference of the Parties?
- (a)COP21, Paris
- (b)COP22, Marrakech
- (c)COP24, Katowice
- (d)COP26, Glasgow
Answer(b) COP22, Marrakech — launched in 2016 by the first two High-Level Champions.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In UNFCCC usage, the term 'non-Party stakeholders' refers to
- (a)countries that have not ratified the Convention
- (b)cities, regions, businesses, investors and civil-society organisations
- (c)the UNFCCC secretariat and its staff
- (d)observer states at the United Nations
Answer(b) cities, regions, businesses, investors and civil-society organisations — actors who are not Parties to the Convention but act on climate change.