UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Dent in World Bank’s climate finance targets

Q1. At COP28 in December 2023, the World Bank Group revised upward the climate finance target of its Climate Change Action Plan 2021–2025. By how many percentage points was the target raised relative to its original 2021 level?

  • A. 5 percentage points
  • B. 10 percentage points
  • C. 15 percentage points
  • D. 20 percentage points

Q2. In the context of the United States' April 2026 push, led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, to scrap the World Bank Group's '45% target', what does that target precisely denote?

  • A. That 45% of the WBG's annual financing be devoted to climate-related projects
  • B. That the WBG cut its own operational greenhouse-gas emissions by 45%
  • C. That 45% of member countries be classified as climate-vulnerable to qualify for lending
  • D. That 45% of WBG loans be offered at concessional, below-market interest rates

Q3. The voting power of a member country in the World Bank's IBRD is determined primarily by which one of the following?

  • A. The member's capital subscription (shareholding) in the institution
  • B. The member country's total population
  • C. A strict one-country-one-vote basis for all members
  • D. The member's ranking in annual global GDP tables

Q4. Which one of the following World Bank Group institutions primarily provides interest-free loans (credits) and grants to the world's low-income countries?

  • A. International Development Association (IDA)
  • B. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
  • C. International Finance Corporation (IFC)
  • D. Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)

Q5. The Paris Agreement was adopted in which year and at which session of the Conference of the Parties (COP)?

  • A. 2015, at COP21
  • B. 1997, at COP3
  • C. 2016, at COP22
  • D. 2009, at COP15

Q6. Under the Paris Agreement's own procedure, the United States conveyed its formal notification of withdrawal in 2025 to which one of the following?

  • A. The Secretary-General of the United Nations (the treaty's depositary)
  • B. The Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Secretariat
  • C. The President of the ongoing session of the COP
  • D. The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund

Q7. The body set to independently appraise the continuation of the World Bank's Climate Change Action Plan framework — the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) — is best described as which one of the following?

  • A. A unit that assesses the development effectiveness of the WBG, independent of Management and reporting directly to the Board of Executive Directors
  • B. An internal audit wing created in 2020 that reports to the World Bank President
  • C. An external United Nations body that monitors global climate finance flows
  • D. A standing committee of borrower-country finance ministers that approves lending

Q8. The Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST), which provides longer-term financing to help low-income and vulnerable middle-income countries address challenges such as climate change, is administered by which one of the following institutions?

  • A. International Monetary Fund (IMF)
  • B. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
  • C. Asian Development Bank (ADB)
  • D. Green Climate Fund (GCF)