With reference to 'NET - ZERO' goal for 2050, which of the following statements is/are correct?
1. It means that a country will bring down its emissions to zero by 2050.
2. It means that a country's e

Question

With reference to 'NET - ZERO' goal for 2050, which of the following statements is/are correct?
1. It means that a country will bring down its emissions to zero by 2050.
2. It means that a country's emissions will be compensated by absorption and removal of green house gases from the atmosphere.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below.
Codes:

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, Only statement 2. 'Net-zero' (net-zero emissions / carbon neutrality) does NOT mean a country cuts its emissions to absolute zero. It means the greenhouse gases a country still emits are balanced — 'netted off' — by an equal quantity removed from the atmosphere through natural sinks (forests, soils, oceans) and removal technologies (afforestation, carbon capture and storage). So statement 1 misdescribes the goal: reducing emissions to zero would be 'gross zero', which is neither required nor realistic for a modern economy. Statement 2 gives the correct definition — residual emissions compensated by absorption and removal of GHGs. Hence only statement 2 is correct → option (b). (Context: at COP26 in Glasgow, just after this exam, India announced its own net-zero target year of 2070.)

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Wrong — statement 1 equates net-zero with gross/absolute zero emissions, which is not what net-zero means; residual emissions are allowed so long as they are offset by an equal amount of removals.  (c) Wrong — statement 1 is incorrect (net-zero is not the same as zero emissions), so 'both correct' fails; only statement 2 defines net-zero properly.  (d) Wrong — statement 2 is the standard, correct definition of net-zero (emissions compensated by absorption/removal), so at least one statement is correct.

Concept: 'Net-zero' (also called carbon neutrality) is a state in which the amount of greenhouse gas a country or entity adds to the atmosphere is balanced by the amount it removes. It does not mean halting all emissions: hard-to-abate emissions (from heavy industry, aviation, agriculture) continue but are cancelled out by carbon sinks and removal, so the NET addition to the atmosphere is zero. The year 2050 is the widely discussed global target for reaching net-zero to keep warming within 1.5 C, in line with the Paris Agreement.

State PCS 2021 Q96 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2021 Q96 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer