UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Warning on warming
Q1. The commitment to hold the rise in global average temperature to 'well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels' while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C is laid down in which one of the following?
- A. Article 4 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992
- B. Article 3 of the Kyoto Protocol, adopted at the third Conference of the Parties in 1997
- C. Article 2 of the Paris Agreement, adopted at the twenty-first Conference of the Parties in 2015
- D. Decision 1/CP.26, the Glasgow Climate Pact, adopted at the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties in 2021
Q2. Consider the following statements regarding the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement:
1. It requires holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
2. The 1.5°C figure is framed as an effort to be pursued, whereas the 'well below 2°C' figure is framed as a limit to be held.
3. The temperature increase under the Agreement is measured against the average temperature of the reference period 1961–1990.
4. Under the Agreement the 1.5°C limit is reckoned relative to the temperature of the year 2020.
Which of the above is/are NOT correct?
- It requires holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
- The 1.5°C figure is framed as an effort to be pursued, whereas the 'well below 2°C' figure is framed as a limit to be held.
- The temperature increase under the Agreement is measured against the average temperature of the reference period 1961–1990.
- Under the Agreement the 1.5°C limit is reckoned relative to the temperature of the year 2020.
- A. 1 and 2
- B. 3 only
- C. 3 and 4
- D. 2, 3 and 4
Q3. Consider the following statements about UNEP's 'Limiting Overshoot' report:
1. Full implementation of unconditional nationally determined contributions together with additional net-zero commitments points to about 1.8°C of warming, whereas current policies point to a higher figure.
2. It is UNEP's annual flagship publication, released each year in the run-up to the climate negotiations to quantify how far projected emissions diverge from Paris-consistent levels.
3. Unlike a trajectory that merely attains net-zero carbon dioxide emissions, the return pathway it describes requires sustained net-negative carbon dioxide emissions.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- Full implementation of unconditional nationally determined contributions together with additional net-zero commitments points to about 1.8°C of warming, whereas current policies point to a higher figure.
- It is UNEP's annual flagship publication, released each year in the run-up to the climate negotiations to quantify how far projected emissions diverge from Paris-consistent levels.
- Unlike a trajectory that merely attains net-zero carbon dioxide emissions, the return pathway it describes requires sustained net-negative carbon dioxide emissions.
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 1 and 3 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q4. Which one of the following does UNEP's 'Limiting Overshoot' report identify as the best remaining option for the world once the 1.5°C threshold is crossed?
- A. Adaptation measures alone, which the report holds can fully reverse the losses caused by exceeding 1.5°C
- B. An immediate and permanent halt to all greenhouse gas emissions, which the report treats as the only means of avoiding any exceedance
- C. Reliance on methane's short atmospheric lifetime of about 12 years to reverse warming without further emission cuts
- D. An 'overshoot, peak and decline' pathway that limits peak warming and then returns temperatures below 1.5°C
Q5. In an overshoot pathway, which one of the following is the principal instrument for bringing global temperature down after peak warming has been reached?
- A. Attaining and maintaining net-zero carbon dioxide emissions across all major emitting sectors
- B. Deep and immediate cuts in short-lived climate pollutants such as methane
- C. A tripling of adaptation finance flowing from developed to developing countries
- D. Sustained net-negative carbon dioxide emissions, delivered largely through carbon dioxide removal
Q6. As assessed by UNEP, a temporary exceedance of the 1.5°C level is now unavoidable, beginning at the latest in the early part of which decade?
- A. The 2020s
- B. The 2030s
- C. The 2040s
- D. The 2050s
Q7. How many countries, apart from the European Commission, have currently joined the Global Methane Pledge?
Q8. The Global Methane Pledge was launched at which one of the following UN Climate Change Conferences?
- A. The twenty-fifth Conference of the Parties, held at Madrid in 2019
- B. The twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties, held at Glasgow in 2021
- C. The twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties, held at Sharm el-Sheikh in 2022
- D. The twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties, held at Dubai in 2023
Q9. India's refusal to accept a binding methane reduction target is defended on the ground that its emissions are 'survival' rather than 'luxury' emissions. This defence rests on the fact that India's single largest source of methane emissions is which one of the following?
- A. Waste, principally landfills and municipal sewage systems in fast-growing urban centres
- B. Agriculture, principally enteric fermentation in livestock together with rice cultivation
- C. Fossil fuels, principally coal mining together with oil and gas processing and leakages
- D. Crop-residue burning, principally in the paddy-wheat belt of the north-western States
Q10. Consider the following statements about the El Niño event reported in 2026:
1. The warming is centred on the western equatorial Pacific, and the event follows the ending of an El Niño that had prevailed through 2025–26.
2. The Niño 3.4 index rose from about 1.5°C above normal in the May–July 2026 average to weekly values of about 2.6°C above average by mid-August 2026.
3. The probability of the event persisting through December 2026 to February 2027 is placed at nearly 100 per cent, with peak intensity expected around the end of 2026.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- The warming is centred on the western equatorial Pacific, and the event follows the ending of an El Niño that had prevailed through 2025–26.
- The Niño 3.4 index rose from about 1.5°C above normal in the May–July 2026 average to weekly values of about 2.6°C above average by mid-August 2026.
- The probability of the event persisting through December 2026 to February 2027 is placed at nearly 100 per cent, with peak intensity expected around the end of 2026.
- A. 2 and 3 only
- B. 1 and 2 only
- C. 1 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q11. Which one of the following is regarded as the world's highest-level decision-making body on matters concerning the global environment?
- A. The United Nations Environment Assembly
- B. The Commission on Sustainable Development
- C. The Council of the Global Environment Facility
- D. The Governing Council of the UN Environment Programme
Q12. Consider the following pairs of UN Climate Change Conferences and their outcomes:
1. COP27, Sharm el-Sheikh — decision to establish and operationalize a fund for loss and damage.
2. COP28, Dubai — conclusion of the first global stocktake under the Paris Agreement.
3. COP29, Baku — a New Collective Quantified Goal tripling climate finance for developing countries to USD 300 billion a year by 2035.
4. COP30, Belém — adoption of the USD 100 billion a year climate finance goal that the New Collective Quantified Goal replaced.
Which of the above is/are correctly identified?
- COP27, Sharm el-Sheikh — decision to establish and operationalize a fund for loss and damage.
- COP28, Dubai — conclusion of the first global stocktake under the Paris Agreement.
- COP29, Baku — a New Collective Quantified Goal tripling climate finance for developing countries to USD 300 billion a year by 2035.
- COP30, Belém — adoption of the USD 100 billion a year climate finance goal that the New Collective Quantified Goal replaced.
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 1, 2 and 3
- C. 2, 3 and 4
- D. 1, 3 and 4