International Environmental Conventions: Treaties and PYQs

The correct answer is D, wetland conservation. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar and came into force in 1975. It is the only global environmental treaty devoted to a single type of ecosystem, and parties designate wetlands of international importance for the Ramsar List and undertake to maintain their ecological character. The second of February is observed as World Wetlands Day.

Option A, climate change, is the subject of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992 and the protocols under it. Option B, pesticide pollution, comes closest to the Rotterdam Convention of 1998 on prior informed consent and the Stockholm Convention of 2001 on persistent organic pollutants. Option C, ozone layer depletion, belongs to the Vienna Convention of 1985 and the Montreal Protocol of 1987.

The correct answer is A. The Polar Code is the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters, adopted by the International Maritime Organization and in force since the beginning of 2017. It is mandatory under the conventions on safety of life at sea and on prevention of pollution from ships, and it covers ship design, equipment, crew training and operation in ice-covered waters, as well as discharges of oil, sewage and garbage in the Arctic and the Antarctic.

Option B is wrong because territorial claims in the Arctic are dealt with under the law of the sea and the continental shelf procedure, not by this code. Option C describes what the Antarctic Treaty system and its environmental protocol do for scientific activity. Option D is wrong because the Arctic Council is a forum for cooperation on environment and sustainable development and does not conclude trade or security agreements.

The correct answer is D, Agenda 21. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, popularly called the Earth Summit, met at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and adopted Agenda 21, a detailed non-binding programme of action for sustainable development. The number refers to the twenty-first century, for which the programme was drawn up, and its chapters cover poverty, consumption patterns, health, human settlements, atmosphere, oceans, waste and the role of major groups.

Options A, B and C, Agenda 39, Agenda 19 and Agenda 22, name no document at all and are included only to test whether the candidate remembers the number. The way to keep it straight is to link the twenty-one to the century that was about to begin, and to remember that the same summit also produced the Rio Declaration, the Forest Principles and the two conventions on climate change and biological diversity.

The correct answer is A, substances that deplete the ozone layer. The Montreal Protocol was adopted in 1987 under the Vienna Convention of 1985 and entered into force in 1989. It fixed timetables for phasing out chlorofluorocarbons, halons, carbon tetrachloride and other ozone depleting chemicals, with later deadlines for developing countries. Universal participation and steady tightening of the schedules have made it the most effective of all environmental treaties.

Option B, hazardous waste moving across borders, is the subject of the Basel Convention of 1989. Option C, migratory species, belongs to the Convention on Migratory Species of 1979, also called the Bonn Convention. Option D, trade in endangered species, is regulated by CITES, agreed at Washington in 1973. Each of these is a separate treaty with its own secretariat and its own conference of parties.

The correct answer is B, CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. It was agreed at Washington in 1973 and came into force in 1975. Species are placed in three appendices: Appendix I covers species threatened with extinction, in which commercial trade is generally prohibited; Appendix II covers species that may become threatened unless trade is controlled; Appendix III covers species protected by a particular country that seeks the help of others.

Option A, the Ramsar Convention of 1971, protects wetlands of international importance and not wildlife trade. Option C, the Basel Convention of 1989, governs the movement of hazardous wastes between countries. Option D, the Rotterdam Convention of 1998, requires prior informed consent before certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides can be exported, which again is a chemicals treaty rather than a wildlife one.

The correct answer is C, 1997. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted at the third Conference of the Parties to the framework convention on climate change, held at Kyoto in Japan in 1997. It bound the developed countries listed in Annex I to quantified emission reduction commitments and left developing countries outside such targets, and it created three flexibility mechanisms: the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation and emissions trading.

Option A, 1992, is the year of the Rio Earth Summit, where the framework convention itself was opened for signature. Option B, 1995, saw the first Conference of the Parties at Berlin, which produced the mandate that led to Kyoto but no protocol. Option D, 2005, is the year the protocol actually entered into force, after Russia ratified it; adoption and entry into force are separate dates and are a frequent source of confusion.

The correct answer is A. The Paris Agreement was adopted at the twenty-first Conference of the Parties in 2015 and entered into force in 2016. Its central aim is to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to one and a half degrees. Every party submits a Nationally Determined Contribution stating its own targets, which are to be reviewed and strengthened over time.

Option B is wrong both in the figure and in the baseline, since the agreement measures the rise from pre-industrial levels and not from the present. Option C names a level far beyond anything the agreement contemplates; a five degree rise is the kind of outcome it exists to prevent. Option D is wrong because no treaty has promised zero further warming from a year two thousand baseline, which is not physically achievable given the warming already committed.

The correct answer is B, control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal. The Basel Convention was adopted in 1989 after public anger at the export of toxic waste from industrialised countries to poorer ones, and it requires prior informed consent from the importing state before such a shipment may be made. Later amendments have brought plastic waste and electronic waste within its notification requirements.

Option A, protection of the ozone layer, belongs to the Vienna Convention of 1985 and the Montreal Protocol of 1987. Option C, conservation of biological diversity, is the subject of the convention opened for signature at Rio in 1992, with its Cartagena and Nagoya protocols. Option D, desertification, is dealt with by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification of 1994, which followed a recommendation of the Rio summit.

The correct answer is A, the Stockholm Conference of 1972. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment met at Stockholm in June 1972 and was the first global gathering to treat the environment as a subject of international policy. The United Nations Environment Programme was created later the same year as a direct result, with its headquarters at Nairobi in Kenya, the first such body to be based in a developing country. The fifth of June is observed as World Environment Day in memory of the conference.

Option B, the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, produced Agenda 21 and two conventions but not UNEP, which already existed and helped organise it. Option C, the Johannesburg Summit of 2002, reviewed progress ten years after Rio. Option D, the Kyoto Conference of 1997, was a meeting of the parties to the climate convention and created a protocol, not an agency.

The correct answer is B, the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, adopted in 2000, governs the safe handling, transport and use of living modified organisms produced by modern biotechnology. The Nagoya Protocol, adopted in 2010, works out the convention's third objective by laying down rules for access to genetic resources and for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from their use.

Option A, the climate convention, has its own instruments, the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and the Paris Agreement of 2015. Option C, the Vienna Convention of 1985, has the Montreal Protocol of 1987 under it. Option D, the desertification convention of 1994, works through regional implementation annexes and national action programmes rather than through protocols of this kind.

The correct answer is C, mercury. The Minamata Convention on Mercury was adopted in 2013 and entered into force in 2017. It controls the supply and trade of mercury, restricts its use in products such as batteries, switches and certain measuring devices, and regulates emissions from coal burning and from small-scale gold mining. It is named after the Japanese city of Minamata, where industrial discharge of mercury compounds into the bay caused severe neurological disease from the nineteen fifties.

Option A, lead, is regulated by national laws on petrol, paint and pipes rather than by a dedicated global convention. Option B, asbestos, appears in the annexes of the Rotterdam Convention on prior informed consent. Option D, arsenic, is a serious contaminant of groundwater in parts of South Asia but is dealt with through drinking water standards and national programmes, not by a treaty of its own.