Climate change & agreements

Answer: (a) Carbon captured by oceans and coastal ecosystems

'Blue carbon' is the carbon taken up and stored by the ocean and by coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows. Per unit area these habitats lock away more carbon than land forests, mostly in their waterlogged soils.

• ✓ (a) The term refers to carbon stored in marine and coastal ecosystems; the colour 'blue' signals water.
• ✗ (b) Carbon held in forests and farm soils on land is usually called 'green carbon', not blue carbon.
• ✗ (c) Carbon in petroleum and natural gas is fossil carbon; burning it releases carbon dioxide rather than storing it.

Remember · Blue carbon = carbon stored by oceans and coastal ecosystems (mangroves, salt marshes, seagrasses); green carbon = land vegetation and soils.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1, 2 and 4

The New York Declaration on Forests was launched at the UN Secretary-General's Climate Summit in New York on 23 September 2014. It is a voluntary political pledge, not a treaty, signed by a mixed coalition of governments, companies, NGOs and indigenous peoples' groups, with the shared goal of ending natural forest loss by 2030. India is not among its endorsers.

• ✓ 1. It was endorsed on 23 September 2014 at the Climate Summit convened in New York by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
• ✓ 2. Its headline goals are to halve natural forest loss by 2020 and end it by 2030, alongside restoring 350 million hectares of degraded land.
• ✗ 3. It is a voluntary political declaration; it creates no legal obligations.
• ✓ 4. The launch coalition included 32 national governments, 18 sub-national governments, 40 companies, 16 indigenous peoples' groups and 49 NGOs and civil-society bodies.
• ✗ 5. India does not appear on the list of national government endorsers, either in 2014 or later.

Remember · NYDF (2014, UN Climate Summit, New York): voluntary, multi-stakeholder; end natural forest loss by 2030, restore 350 million ha. India has not endorsed it.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) assessing the carbon footprint of building operations around the world

The Common Carbon Metric (2009) is a UNEP-backed method for measuring energy use and reporting greenhouse gas emissions from the operation of buildings, so that the carbon footprint of buildings anywhere can be assessed and compared on the same basis. It has nothing to do with farm carbon trading or national inventories.

• ✓ (a) Its full title is the 'Common carbon metric for measuring energy use and reporting greenhouse gas emissions from building operations', published by UNEP in 2009 through its Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative.
• ✗ (c) National emissions are reported through greenhouse gas inventories under the UNFCCC, not through this building-level metric.
• ✗ (d) The metric measures individual buildings' operational emissions, not global fossil-fuel emissions per unit time.

Remember · UNEP's Common Carbon Metric (2009) = a universal way to measure the operational carbon footprint of buildings (energy use and emissions per square metre or per occupant).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three statements are correct. CCAFS is a CGIAR research programme, it set up Climate-Smart Villages in several Indian states, CGIAR is based in Montpellier, France, and ICRISAT (Patancheru, near Hyderabad) is one of its research centres.

• ✓ 1. CCAFS, the CGIAR programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, tests adaptation options in Climate-Smart Villages. Its list of villages includes sites in Haryana, Bihar, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
• ✓ 2. CCAFS is a CGIAR research programme, and the CGIAR System Organization has its address in Montpellier, France.
• ✓ 3. CGIAR lists ICRISAT, whose headquarters are at Patancheru in India, among its research centres.

Remember · CCAFS is a CGIAR programme; CGIAR is based in Montpellier, France; ICRISAT (Patancheru, Hyderabad) is a CGIAR centre; Climate-Smart Villages began in 2011.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error