CORE Key Points at a Glance

  1. 1

    Climate change is the long-term alteration of temperature, rainfall, extreme events and the climate system because greenhouse gases trap outgoing heat.

  2. 2

    UNFCCC began in 1992, the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 made Annex I emission reduction commitments, and the Paris Agreement in 2015 created the NDC cycle.

  3. 3

    The Kigali Amendment links ozone and climate policy by phasing down HFC use under the Montreal Protocol, with India ratifying it in 2021.

  4. 4

    IPCC AR6 ran across 2021, 2022 and 2023, with the Synthesis Report released on 20 March 2023 for the global stocktake.

  5. 5

    India updated NDC in 2022 to target 45% emissions intensity reduction and about 50% electric power installed capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030.

  6. 6

    Domestic climate law uses the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022, forest, wildlife and biodiversity statutes.

  7. 7

    ISFR 2023 reported a 30.43 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent carbon sink in forest and tree cover, close to India's 2030 sink target.

  8. 8

    Rajasthan turns climate change into concrete questions through heat waves, Thar Desert water stress, district plans, arid agriculture and solar-energy mitigation.

CORE Climate Change and the Greenhouse Mechanism

Climate change is a long-term shift in average temperature, rainfall, humidity, sea level, snow cover, wind circulation and the frequency of extreme events. The scientific core is the enhanced greenhouse effect. Solar radiation enters the Earth system mostly as short-wave energy; the surface emits long-wave infrared radiation; greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and fluorinated gases absorb part of that outgoing heat and re-radiate it. Without a natural greenhouse effect, Earth would be far colder, but human-driven emissions from fossil-fuel combustion, cement manufacture, deforestation, paddy fields, livestock, fertilisers, landfills and industrial gases have strengthened the heat trap. The UNFCCC uses the phrase greenhouse gases and climate system because warming is not just a thermometer change; it alters oceans, cryosphere, monsoon circulation, ecosystems, agriculture, human health and disaster risk. For Rajasthan, this distinction matters immediately. Heat waves in Rajasthan expose workers, schoolchildren, livestock and urban poor to heat stress, while the Thar Desert makes the link between high temperature, evaporation and water scarcity visible. The same carbon dioxide molecule emitted from a coal plant, vehicle or kiln mixes globally, but vulnerability is local: a desert district with falling groundwater, sparse vegetation and informal outdoor labour experiences climate risk differently from a coastal district.

PREDICTED Predicted RAS Questions

Based on PYQ trends and 2026 syllabus analysis

1 1M Arrange the climate agreements in chronological order of adoption: Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement, Kigali Amendment and UNFCCC. 1 marks · 0 words

Model Answer

UNFCCC was adopted in 1992, the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the Paris Agreement in 2015 and the Kigali Amendment in 2016. This sequence follows the evolution from framework convention to developed-country targets, then universal NDCs, then HFC phase down. Option A wrongly places Kyoto before the framework convention. Option C swaps Paris and Kyoto. Option D starts with Paris, which is later than both UNFCCC and Kyoto.

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