Environment & Ecology Previous Year Questions (PYQ) with Answers – Page 2

India's net zero target announced at COP-26 is the year 2070, not 2047. At COP-26 in Glasgow in November 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced five commitments called the Panchamrit (five nectar elements).

It comes from the rise and fall of sea tides, a renewable source that is not among the traditional fuels.

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in December 1997 at Kyoto in Japan under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and came into force in February 2005.

Sulphur dioxide is an air pollutant, not one of the greenhouse gases; in fact the sulphate particles it forms reflect sunlight and have a slight cooling effect.

The Ramsar Convention is the treaty for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. It was signed on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the Caspian Sea and came into force in 1975, which makes it one of the oldest global environmental agreements.

The Nature Restoration Law is a regulation of the European Union, adopted by its Parliament and Council in 2024. It is part of the European Green Deal and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.

These salts are the usual seeding agents in cloud seeding, the artificial way to make rain. Cloud seeding sprays tiny particles into clouds that already hold moisture, from aircraft, rockets or ground generators.

Rain is called acid rain when its pH falls below 5.6. Even clean rain is slightly acidic, because carbon dioxide in the air dissolves in it and forms weak carbonic acid, which brings its pH down to about 5.6.

Each of these everyday items is made partly or wholly of synthetic polymers, which is what plastic is. A cigarette filter is made of cellulose acetate, a plastic that takes years to break down, which is why butts are among the most common litter found on beaches.

India is the second-largest emitter of fuel-combustion CO2 in the Asia-Pacific after China, and power and heat generation is its biggest source, but its per capita emissions are well above 0.5 tonne.

The Gooty tarantula is a tree-dwelling spider found only in a few forest patches of India; it is not a crustacean.

Direct Air Capture pulls carbon dioxide straight out of the open air, and that CO2 can either be stored underground or used to make products.

The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve spreads across Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, meeting where the Western and Eastern Ghats join. Set up in 1986, the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was India's first biosphere reserve and in 2000 became the first in India to join UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

Both Statement II and Statement III are true, and each one is a reason why a circular economy cuts greenhouse gas emissions.

Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand is India's oldest national park; it was set up in 1936 as Hailey National Park and in 1973 became the first reserve under Project Tiger.

In this food chain grass is the producer, the impala is the herbivore and the hyena is the predator that keeps the impala population in check.

The IUCN publishes the Red List of Threatened Species, the world's main list of species at risk. The IUCN was founded in 1948 and has its headquarters at Gland in Switzerland.

Point Calimere, also called Kodiakkarai, lies in the Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu, a state, where the Coromandel Coast turns west towards Palk Strait.

Mild to cold seasons, good rainfall, broad-leaved deciduous trees like maple and oak, and animals like raccoons and squirrels mark the temperate deciduous forest.

A carbon border adjustment exists to stop carbon-intensive activity from moving out of a strict jurisdiction, not to help it move, and its aim is to make climate policy work better.