CSS 2007 Solved Current Affairs Past Papers | Factors of Global Warming and Koyoto Protocol
The following question of CSS Current Affairs 2007 is solved by Sir Ammar Hashmi, the best Current Affairs Coach, on the guided pattern of Sir Syed Kazim Ali, which he taught to his students, scoring the highest marks in compulsory subjects for years. This solved past paper question is uploaded to help aspirants understand how to crack a topic or question, write relevantly, what coherence is, and how to include and connect ideas, opinions, and suggestions to score the maximum.
Question breakdown
This question requires the major factors contributing towards global warming, such as greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial processes that release carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. It also seeks to summarize the Kyoto Protocol and its key measures to mitigate climate change.
Outline
1-Introduction
2-Leading Factors Behind Global Warming
3-Strategies and Measures adopted under Kyoto Protocol
- ✓ Legal Binding of Emission Reduction Targets
- ✓ System of Emission Trading
- ✓ Clean Development Mechanism
- ✓ Joint Implementation
- ✓ Carbon Sink Encouragement
- ✓ Renewable Energy and Promotion of similar projects
- ✓ Promotion of Climate Friendly Technologies
4-Critical Analysis
5-Conclusion
Introduction
The increase in the concentrations of greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in the atmosphere is contributing to global warming. Another major factor is burning fossil fuels like transportation, which contributes to 76% of global greenhouse gas emissions. A potent greenhouse gas is methane, which retains heat 24 to 28 times more than CO2 emitted because of agriculture, extraction of oil and gas, and solid waste dumps. Furthermore, deforestation and industrial contributions, including hazardous industrial gases emitted from chemical and cement production and nitrous oxide emitted from the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers, have worsened the situation. The Kyoto Protocol’s legacy remains invaluable as it paved the way for the formation and implementation of an international climate policy framework that encapsulates legal binding of emission reduction targets, a system of emission trading, a clean development mechanism, joint implementation, carbon sink encouragement, renewable energy and promotion of similar projects and promotion of climate-friendly technologies that further reached to the Paris Agreement of 2015 which included developing countries in the emission reduction schedule.
Leading Factors behind Global Warming
The overall temperature of the Earth is gradually increasing because of various human-induced factors, which enhance the greenhouse effect, a core factor that leads to the warming of the global climate. The increase in the concentrations of greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in the atmosphere is contributing to global warming. These gases warm the world because they ‘mask’ heat and prevent it from being released into the interstellar void. Moreover, transportation and heat from fossil fuel combustion are other significant sources of carbon dioxide that contribute to 76% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2023, CO2 concentrations at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory surpassed 420 parts per million, the highest level reached in the past 800,000 years. Another potent greenhouse gas is methane, which retains heat 24 to 28 times more than CO2. Human annual methane emissions have lately risen to more than 150 percent compared to pre-industrial levels because of agriculture, extraction of oil and gas, and solid waste dumps. Burning of fossil fuels accounts for approximately ninety per cent of global CO2 emissions, as reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Furthermore, deforestation has also contributed to worsening the global warming. FAO reveals that more than 10 million hectares of the world’s forests are lost annually, and this activity raises carbon sequestration and emits an additional amount of CO2 into the atmosphere, increasing temperature. In addition, industrial contribution includes industrial gases emitted as a result of chemicals and cement production; for instance, about 21% of CO2 emissions come from cement industries. Furthermore, nitrous oxide is emitted in the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers, which the IPCC estimates to contribute about 60 percent to the global emissions of N2O. Changes in land surfaces and related imperatives also increase global warming because they alter land surfaces and increase energy demand through urbanization and infrastructural development. The problem worsens because of the poor management of waste products, mainly through landfill disposal. Over the years, James Hansen and other scientists have said, “CO2 will need to be reduced if humanity wishes to preserve a planet where a civilization can develop.” Figure 1.1 shows the Conceptual structure of the factors and effects of climate change. (source: ResearchGate)
Fig 1.1: Conceptual structure of the factors and effects of climate change. (source: Researchgate)
Strategies and Measures adopted under the Kyoto Protocol
- ✓ Legal Binding of Emission Reduction Targets:
During the first commitment period from 2008 to 2012, it bound industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2 %. However, the specific aims of each country varied. For example, the European Union committed to a minimum 8% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, the initial target assigned to the USA was a 7% reduction, and Japan agreed on a 6 % cut. To ensure organization and liability, it was deemed appropriate to put forward obligatory quotas since reliance upon voluntary efforts could not effectively limit emissions. Those countries that did not meet their targets were penalized or given even higher targets in the next commitment period. The European Union was the only one that effectively achieved an emission decrease despite good economic growth; it had cut its emissions by approximately 23% by 2018. However, some countries struggled to achieve these legal emission limits, as Canada in 2011 pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol, claiming its inability to meet its obligations due to excess emissions from the oil and gas sector. Kyoto Protocol has been described by the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a starting point toward an actual international emission reduction agreement that will stabilize concentrations of greenhouse gases.
- ✓ System of Emission Trading:
Emission trading or ‘cap-and-trade’ was one of the innovative instruments applied under the Kyoto Protocol to help countries address their targets regarding GHG emissions cuts. It allows countries that emit less than their permitted quotas to sell the excess to those countries that emit more than their allowed quotas, easing their emission debts. This market-based strategy encourages nations to buy cost-efficient improvements in cleaner technologies and emission reductions while maintaining flexibility in their economy. Each participating nation or any other corporation has emission permits to discharge a particular volume of carbon dioxide or similar gases. A nation can also set up regimes of financial penalties for industries with high emissions by selling extra emission allowances to other countries struggling to meet those targets. Another popular kind of emission trading is the European Union Emissions Trading System – EU ETS, which started in 2005. Since its creation, the system has brought together more than 11,000 European power plants and industrial sites. This has resulted in a 35% cut in the overall emissions of industries where ETS applies between 2005 and 2020. When well formulated and implemented, emission trading has demonstrated a high capacity for attaining emission reduction goals, as done by the EU.
- ✓ Clean Development Mechanism:
To advance sustainable development and facilitate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries, the Kyoto Protocol created a mechanism called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). It enables the developed countries with legally binding emission-cutting targets to finance emission-cutting schemes in the developing countries. Such projects help developing countries earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits, which developed nations can use to meet their emission reduction targets. Thus, the CDM has two functions: it allows the development of sustainable economies while providing developing, industrialized nations with cost-effective ways of fulfilling their climate objectives. Some programs under the CDM are methane abatement, afforestation, energy-efficient measures, and energy generation through renewable sources. For instance, a hydroelectric power project in Brazil or a wind farming project in India is a CDM project because they lessen carbon emissions by offering power different from the power provided by fossil resources. More than 7800 project lists in 111 countries have been admitted under the CDM by 2020, generating over 2 billion CERs or 2 billion metric tons of CO2 reduction. Due to the high possible savings in emissions, China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and other developing countries were among the largest hosts of CDM activities, which constitute approximately 70% of total projects. The Paris Agreement processes are some of the later international climate processes that seek to expand upon and extend the principles of the CDM.
- ✓ Joint Implementation:
The Kyoto Protocol also developed the Joint Implementation (JI), which allows developed countries to fund projects aimed at reducing emissions in other developed countries to meet mandatory emission reduction targets. Emission reduction units (ERUs) are accredited to the host country and can be later sold to another country that has to meet its emissions targets. JI makes cooperation between industrialized countries while transferring technology and sustainable practices and achieving emission reductions for reasonable costs. For instance, the amount of CO2 emissions was reduced substantially by a project that aimed at improving energy efficiency in steel production in Ukraine. Ukraine could generate ERUs that could be bought for money by other nations and, at the same time, update its industrial complexes under the JI system. Similarly, Russia has implemented many JI projects, mainly in the area of waste management and energy saving, indicating a great potential for reducing emissions from the concentrated sectors. Thus, JI has registered over 600 projects, though the largest part of these concerns is Eastern Europe, the region with the highest potential for decreasing emissions. There remain credible concerns about cheating on rules to generate hot air: ‘The assessment of the performance of Joint Implementation is a function of how strictly measures are complied with in the process’, said environmental economist Axel Michaelowa – implying that checks must be instituted to ensure that JI projects amount to a worthy and verifiable cause.
- ✓ Carbon Sink Encouragement:
CO2 mitigation by enhancing natural sinks through promoting carbon sinks was another effort under the Kyoto Protocol. Carbon sinks are the natural systems of the earth that capture or sequester more carbon through processes, including photosynthesis, than they emit. This generally reduces the cumulative concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. The main strategies encouraged by the Kyoto Protocol in order to increase the effects of carbon sinks included reforestation, afforestation and reforestation. For instance, conversion involves planting trees in degraded lands or planting new forests — this enables the nations to have more ways of reducing emissions. For example, a forestry project in China restored over 400 thousand hectares of culturally degraded land and 9 million hectares of degraded soils against erosion and desertification, abating millions of tons of CO2. Permits for increasing carbon stock from the activities under LULUCF (land use, land-use change, and forestry) were granted to the nations under this protocol. Sometimes, they might employ these credits, known as removal units (RMUs), to meet their emission targets. For example, a nation may be qualified to obtain carbon credits through efficient methods of forestry that improve carbon stocks. To fund such undertakings, this strategy provided nations with a financial appreciation to support programs that either conserve or develop forests.
- ✓ Renewable Energy and Promotion of similar projects:
The Kyoto Protocol thus includes new flexible mechanisms: The Clean Development Mechanism CDM, the Joint Implementation JI and emissions trading. All represent major initiatives for investment in renewable energies, including split cycling, photovoltaic cells and other technologies promising low emission rates. The Clean Development Mechanism encourages developed countries to promote renewable power generation in the developing world to create sustainable energy while offering the developing countries credit, which would enable them to fulfil their emission goals. The vision to put a financial price on carbon, as espoused by the Kyoto Protocol, draws the focus and flexes muscles for wind, solar, hydropower and biomass projects independently of fossil fuels. One of the manifestations of working under this protocol is the fact that Brazil invested millions of dollars in wind energy through the CDM. Since signing on to the Kyoto Protocol, Brazil has avoided approximately 400 million metric tons of CO₂ emissions, which now constitutes approximately 11% of Brazil’s energy portfolio. Another example is the change in the trend of solar power from conventional sources in India. In 2001, as soon as the Kyoto Protocol was signed, India launched the National Solar Mission with a vision for large-scale solar power deployment. India is now among the leaders in solar energy. Kyoto made the European Union one of the first champions of renewables, with achieved targets for cuts in emissions. Kyoto may not have the privilege of solving climate change alone. Still, its efforts have laid the groundwork for the further development of renewable energy worldwide, which will create a low-carbon environment.
- ✓ Promotion of Climate Friendly Technologies:
An important development area under Kyoto has been “run carbon capture and storage” (CCS) technology, aimed at decreasing the CO₂ emission factors from large sources such as power plants. The Sleipner gas field CCS project in Norway is one of the first and most prominent of all. This project has been managed and operated by Equinor since 1996 and has an annual CO₂ capture capability of about 1 MMT (million metric tons), keeping it out of the atmosphere. Likewise, the Boundary Dam CCS project in Canada, adopted in 2014, aimed at meeting the Kyoto Protocol goals, captures over a million tons of CO₂ per annum as an indication of the impacts of the protocol in placing capacity on emission reduction technologies. In transportation, this protocol has enhanced cleaner technologies to reduce emissions from one of the most carbon-intensive industries, like hybrid and electric vehicle technology, which has been developed mainly due to incentives and policy changes. Also, prominent climate-friendly technologies such as precision farming that involve the use of data-oriented practices to improve resource usage have been in use in agriculture. The Kyoto Protocol’s focus on technology development provided important linkages to the future development of cleaner energy, efficient agriculture, waste minimization, and sustainable transport systems, which point towards a lower emission in future.
Critical Analysis
The Kyoto Protocol’s legacy remains invaluable as it paved the way for forming an international climate policy framework that reached the Paris Agreement of 2015, which included developing countries in the emission reduction schedule. While the Kyoto Protocol was unique and very progressive in its time, it did have shortcomings. It should limit its focus to developed countries, e.g., excluding several of the largest emerging economies, including China and India, with whom the Protocol did not impose emission-cut targets. This omission was significant, as China has become the largest CO2 emitter in the world, currently at 29.6%, and India is also rapidly catching up. While its impact can hardly be named as the solution to the crisis, it helped shift the world’s consciousness about climate change. Climate change requires immediate actions that could elaborate more ambitious agreements, such as those in Paris, to get closer to the goals essential to avoid these climate-related calamities.
Conclusion
The transition is evident with the growing perception that everyone must be involved in addressing climate challenges. The imperfections of Kyoto were their strength in some way; the unsuitability pointed out the requirements of the policies that needed to be finer, the monitoring mechanism which had to be tightened and the participation of all countries to combat the problem of global warming more efficiently. Kyoto also set precedents for climate funding, demanding that developed countries fund renewable projects in developing nations, a significant principle of climate policy today. As stated by the IRENA, last year, the global investments dedicated to renewables grew to $ 359bn, which was initially developed under Kyoto. The Kyoto Protocol was an important contribution to reducing global warming, where states joined an unprecedented cooperation to reduce emissions and promote climate-friendly technologies. Despite failing to refreeze the polar ice cap and thus arrest the adverse impacts of climate change, its achievements are solidly embedded as the building blocks of the current climate change regime. Kyoto may not have been the final answer, but it is the beginning of one, and it has provided the world with the tools to deal with one of the biggest issues facing humanity.
CSS Solved Past Papers’ Essays
Looking for the last ten years of CSS and PMS Solved Essays and want to know how Sir Kazim’s students write and score the highest marks in the essays’ papers? Then, click on the CSS Solved Essays to start reading them.
CSS Solved Essays
CSS Solved General Science & Ability Past Papers
Want to read the last ten years’ General Science & Ability Solved Past Papers to learn how to attempt them and to score high? Let’s click on the link below to read them all freely. All past papers have been solved by Pakistan’s top CSS GSA coach having the highest score of their students.
General Science & Ability Solved Past Papers
