What does the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasize regarding reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission ? 1. Gradual and limited reductions are enough. 2. Deep, rapid and sustained reductions are essential. Select the correct answer from the codes given below :
- (a)Both 1 and 2
- (b)Neither 1 nor 2
- (c)Only 1
- (d)Only 2
Correct — D, Only statement 2. Statement 2 is not a paraphrase of the IPCC; it is the panel's own stock phrase. The Summary for Policymakers of the AR6 Synthesis Report, approved in March 2023, states in section B.1 that 'deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions' would lead to a discernible slowing of global warming, and repeats the formula in C.2.1 — 'deep, rapid, and sustained mitigation and accelerated implementation of adaptation actions in this decade would reduce future losses and damages related to climate change for humans and ecosystems.' Section B.6 puts the same point in the language of modelled pathways: every pathway that limits warming to 1.5°C involves 'rapid and deep and, in most cases, immediate greenhouse gas emissions' reductions in all sectors. The numbers behind the adjectives are in Table SPM.1 — to hold warming to 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot, global greenhouse-gas emissions must fall about 43 per cent below 2019 levels by 2030 (CO₂ about 48 per cent), reaching net zero CO₂ in the early 2050s; even the weaker 2°C pathway needs roughly a 21 per cent cut by 2030. A 43 per cent cut in eleven years is the opposite of gradual and limited, which is exactly why statement 1 fails. Note also that the two statements contradict each other — if one is the IPCC's position the other cannot be — so any option that accepts both, or rejects both, is logically unavailable the moment you recognise the phrase in statement 2.
- (a)Both 1 and 2 — Impossible on the face of it. 'Gradual and limited reductions are enough' and 'deep, rapid and sustained reductions are essential' are mutually exclusive prescriptions; a single body cannot emphasise both. Beyond the logic, the IPCC has never framed incrementalism as sufficient — AR6 records that current policies and even the pledged nationally determined contributions leave a gap that puts 1.5°C out of reach without much faster cuts.
- (b)Neither 1 nor 2 — Statement 2 is almost a verbatim quotation from the AR6 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers, so it cannot be rejected. This option is the choice of a candidate who does not recognise the phrase and assumes both statements are examiner-written traps.
- (c)Only 1 — This inverts the IPCC's message. Nothing in the AR6 cycle — Working Group I (2021), Working Group II and III (2022) or the Synthesis Report (2023) — supports the view that slow, partial cuts suffice. AR6 instead requires global emissions to peak at the latest before 2025 and to fall steeply thereafter, and warns that every increment of warming intensifies the hazards.
The IPCC is the United Nations' scientific assessment body on climate change, set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the UN Environment Programme. It conducts no research of its own: it assesses the published scientific, technical and socio-economic literature and issues consensus reports whose Summaries for Policymakers are approved line by line by member governments. Its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) ran from 2021 to 2023 — Working Group I on the physical science, Working Group II on impacts and adaptation, Working Group III on mitigation, closed by a Synthesis Report in March 2023. The mitigation message of that cycle is compressed into one recurring phrase: emission reductions must be deep, rapid and sustained.
This is a two-statement question with contradictory statements, which is a gift if you notice it: the answer must be 'Only 1' or 'Only 2', and 'Both' and 'Neither' can be struck out before you know any climate science at all. That halves the field. The remaining decision needs only one recollection — that 'deep, rapid and sustained' is IPCC boilerplate, quoted in every news report of AR6 and in every Environment section of a standard textbook. The 'gradual and limited' framing in statement 1 is the examiner's invention, echoing the go-slow argument that developing economies need decades to transition. That argument does exist in climate diplomacy, but it lives under the UNFCCC's principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, not in an IPCC assessment of what the atmosphere requires. Keep the two apart: the IPCC says what the physics demands, the UNFCCC and its COPs negotiate who does how much and by when.
- The AR6 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers (March 2023) uses the exact wording 'deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions' (B.1) and 'deep, rapid, and sustained mitigation and accelerated implementation of adaptation actions in this decade' (C.2.1).
- Table SPM.1 of that report: limiting warming to 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot requires global GHG emissions about 43 per cent below 2019 levels by 2030 (range 34–60 per cent) and CO₂ about 48 per cent below; the 2°C pathway requires about a 21 per cent GHG cut by 2030.
- In 1.5°C pathways global greenhouse-gas emissions peak between 2020 and at the latest before 2025, and CO₂ reaches net zero in the early 2050s, followed by net negative CO₂.
- The IPCC was established in 1988 by the WMO and UNEP; it assesses existing published literature rather than conducting original research, and its Summary for Policymakers is approved by governments line by line.
- The IPCC is a scientific body; the UNFCCC (1992, Rio) is the treaty, and the Conference of the Parties (COP) is its negotiating forum. IPCC assessments feed the COP process — for instance the Global Stocktake — but the IPCC itself sets no targets for any country.
- Treating the IPCC as a treaty body that sets emission targets. It assesses science; the UNFCCC and its COPs negotiate obligations.
- Believing the IPCC carries out its own research or measurements. It assesses already-published literature.
- Reading 'net zero' as 'zero emissions'. Net zero means residual emissions are balanced by removals — a distinction UPPSC has already asked directly.
UPPSC keeps climate questions short and phrase-based — a stock IPCC or UNFCCC formulation dropped into a two-statement or assertion-reason frame — while UPSC prefers to test the institutional map (which body does what, which agreement said what) and the numerical thresholds such as 1.5°C, 2°C and net zero years.
With reference to the Agreement at the UNFCCC Meeting in Paris in 2015, which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. The Agreement was signed by all the member countries of the UN and it will go into effect in 2017. 2. The Agreement aims to limit the greenhouse gas emissions so that the rise in average global temperature by the end of this century does not exceed 2°C or even 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. 3. Developed countries acknowledged their historical responsibility in global warming and committed to donate $1000 billion a year from 2020 to help developing countries to cope with climate change. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a) 1 and 3 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) 2 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(b) 2 only
The other half of the same idea — the 1.5°C and 2°C temperature limits are precisely what makes deep, rapid and sustained emission cuts necessary, since the IPCC's 43 per cent by 2030 figure is derived from those limits.
The scientific view is that the increase in global temperature should not exceed 2 °C above the pre-industrial level. If the global temperature increases beyond 3 °C above the pre-industrial level, what can be its possible impact/impacts on the world? 1. Terrestrial biosphere tends toward a net carbon source. 2. Widespread coral mortality will occur. 3. All the global wetlands will permanently disappear. 4. Cultivation of cereals will not be possible anywhere in the world. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 1 and 2 only
- (c) 2, 3 and 4 only
- (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Answer(b) 1 and 2 only
Built directly on IPCC projections, this question tests the consequences of failing to cut emissions — the terrestrial biosphere flipping from sink to source and coral mortality are the reason the panel calls deep and rapid reductions essential rather than desirable.
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:
- (a) Only 1
- (b) Only 2
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(b) Only 2
The destination that the IPCC's deep, rapid and sustained cuts are meant to reach — net zero CO₂ in the early 2050s in 1.5°C pathways — and the same two-statement format UPPSC reuses for climate terminology.
Which of the following are the impacts of Global Warming? 1. Rise in sea level 2. Melting of glaciers 3. Spread of diseases 4. Bleaching of Coral reefs Select the correct answer using the codes given below. Codes :
- (a) 1, 2 and 3 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1, 3 and 4 only
- (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Answer(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
The impacts side of the same assessment — sea-level rise, glacier melt, disease spread and coral bleaching are the losses and damages the AR6 Synthesis Report says deep, rapid and sustained mitigation in this decade would reduce.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by which two organisations?
- (a)UNEP and UNDP
- (b)WMO and UNEP
- (c)UNESCO and WMO
- (d)UNFCCC and the World Bank
Answer(b) WMO and UNEP — the World Meteorological Organization and the UN Environment Programme set up the IPCC in 1988; the UNFCCC came only in 1992 and is a treaty, not a parent organisation of the panel.
- practice — not a real PYQ
According to the IPCC's AR6 Synthesis Report, limiting global warming to 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot requires global greenhouse-gas emissions in 2030 to be lower than 2019 levels by about
- (a)10 per cent
- (b)21 per cent
- (c)43 per cent
- (d)75 per cent
Answer(c) 43 per cent — Table SPM.1 of the AR6 Synthesis Report gives about a 43 per cent cut in GHG emissions by 2030 relative to 2019 for 1.5°C pathways; about 21 per cent is the corresponding figure for the 2°C pathway.