A coastal city implements a plan to build sea walls and elevate buildings in response to rising sea levels. This action primarily falls under which category of climate change response?

Correct — D. Sea walls and raised buildings cut no greenhouse gases. They accept that the sea is rising and reduce the damage it will do.

The IPCC calls that adaptation: adjusting to actual or expected climate and its effects in order to moderate harm → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Climate Change Mitigation. — Mitigation tackles the cause: cutting greenhouse gas emissions or enhancing carbon sinks, through measures like renewable energy and afforestation. A sea wall reduces no emissions.
• (b)
  Carbon Sequestration. — Carbon sequestration captures and stores carbon dioxide in forests, soils or underground. It is a mitigation tool, and a sea wall stores no carbon.
• (c)
  Geoengineering. — Geoengineering means deliberate, large-scale intervention in the climate system itself, such as reflecting sunlight or removing carbon dioxide. A sea wall protects one coast; it does not alter the climate.

Climate policy has two broad responses. Mitigation deals with the cause by reducing greenhouse gas emissions or enhancing sinks. Adaptation deals with the effects, reducing harm from changes already happening or expected.

Adaptation can be hard, such as sea walls, embankments and raised buildings, or soft, such as early-warning systems, drought-tolerant crops and land-use rules.

The Paris Agreement sets a global goal on adaptation alongside its mitigation goals.

Key facts

• IPCC: adaptation is the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects, to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.
• IPCC: mitigation is a human intervention to reduce emissions or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases.
• Carbon sequestration, storing carbon in forests, soils or geological formations, is a form of mitigation.
• Article 7 of the Paris Agreement establishes a global goal on adaptation.

Common traps

• Calling every climate action mitigation: if it protects against impacts rather than cutting emissions, it is adaptation.
• Treating geoengineering as any big engineering work: it means intervening in the global climate system.

No directly related past PYQ was found.