Questions: Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
4 questions to test your understanding
Score: 0 / 4
Question 1 Multiple Choice
Which action is an example of adaptation rather than mitigation?
AReplacing a coal power plant with wind turbines
BCapturing methane leaking from landfills
CRaising coastal roads and building flood barriers against higher sea levels
DImproving insulation in buildings to use less heating fuel
Raising roads and building barriers reduce the damage from a change that is already happening. The other options reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which is mitigation.
Question 2 Short Answer
Why does stopping CO₂-driven warming require net CO₂ emissions to reach zero, and not just a slower rate of emissions?
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: Global warming is roughly proportional to cumulative CO₂ emissions, because CO₂ builds up in the atmosphere and stays for centuries. As long as net emissions are above zero, the total keeps growing and so does warming. Only when emissions are balanced by removals does the total, and the CO₂-driven warming, stop rising.
This near-linear link between cumulative emissions and warming is a key finding of IPCC assessments. It is the basis for carbon budgets: a fixed temperature limit corresponds to a fixed total amount of CO₂ that can still be emitted.
Question 3 True / False
Cutting methane emissions mainly affects the amount of warming centuries from now, while cutting CO₂ mainly affects the next ten years.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
It is the other way around. Methane traps much more heat per molecule but is removed from the air in about a decade, so cutting it slows warming soon. CO₂ lasts for centuries, so its cumulative total sets long-term warming.
Question 4 Multiple Choice
What temperature goal does the 2015 Paris Agreement set?
AReturn global temperature to its 1850 level by 2050
BHold warming well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C
CKeep warming below 4°C by 2100
DCut all greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent
The agreement's temperature goal is well below 2°C, with efforts toward 1.5°C. Each country sets its own emission targets, called nationally determined contributions, and updates them over time.