Climate Change
Climate change questions test the gas, the protocol and the target, in that order. Keep the international agreements in date order and the mechanism names attached to the right treaty.
Mental model
Keep two chains apart, because the exam constantly conflates them. GREENHOUSE chain: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide trap outgoing infrared in the troposphere → warming. OZONE chain: chlorofluorocarbons destroy stratospheric ozone → more ultraviolet reaching the surface. Different gases, different layers, different treaties (climate has the UN climate convention and Paris; ozone has Vienna and Montreal). Ask 'which layer?' first and the answer sorts itself.
Associations
A short trigger on the left, everything it pulls with it on the right.
Kyoto binds, Paris pledges.
The Kyoto Protocol (1997) set binding emission-cut targets for developed countries. The Paris Agreement (2015) instead relies on Nationally Determined Contributions — each country pledges its own target, with a common goal of holding warming well below 2 degrees Celsius.
CO2, methane, nitrous oxide — the greenhouse trio.
Carbon dioxide is the largest share by volume; methane traps far more heat per molecule but persists for a shorter time; nitrous oxide is smaller in volume but very potent. Questions asking which gas 'traps more heat per unit' usually want methane, not carbon dioxide.
Things to remember
The night-before list. Short enough to recall cold.
- 1The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit; its Conference of Parties meets annually.
- 2The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 and set binding emission-reduction targets for developed (Annex I) countries.
- 3The Paris Agreement, adopted at COP21 in 2015, aims to keep warming well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, pursuing 1.5 degrees.
- 4India's Nationally Determined Contributions include targets on emissions intensity of GDP and the share of non-fossil fuel capacity in power generation.
- 5The International Solar Alliance, headquartered in India, was launched jointly by India and France in 2015.
In detail
- The Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015 and aims to hold the rise in global average temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees.
- Under the Paris Agreement each country submits its own Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are self-set and periodically revised.
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) does not do original research; it assesses published science and issues periodic assessment reports.
- Methane traps far more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide over a short horizon but stays in the atmosphere for a much shorter time.
- India runs a National Action Plan on Climate Change built around several national missions, including missions on solar energy, energy efficiency and sustainable habitat.
Where people slip
- The Paris Agreement does not set binding country-specific emission cuts the way Kyoto did — it relies on self-determined pledges reviewed periodically.
Check yourself
Nothing here is scored — it will not change your mastery figures.
The Paris Agreement on climate change relies primarily on:
From the question bank
Which gas is the single largest contributor to anthropogenic global warming?
From the question bank
What term describes the rise in average sea level primarily caused by thermal expansion of seawater and melting of glaciers/ice sheets due to global warming?
Books to read
- Environment for Civil Services — Shankar IAS Academy
- NCERT Class XI — Geography: Fundamentals of Physical Geography
- India Year Book — Publications Division, Government of India
Official sources
Hand-checked official domains only — the notes above carry no links of their own.