Climate Change Mitigation Plans 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Demand-side mitigation strategies focus primarily on:
- Building new nuclear power plants
- Changing consumer behavior and reducing consumption (Correct answer)
- Capturing CO₂ at power plant smokestacks
- Deploying offshore wind farms
Correct answer: Changing consumer behavior and reducing consumption
Demand-side measures target how people live, eat, travel, and purchase goods, reducing emissions at the point of consumption rather than production.
Question 2: Which greenhouse gas has a much shorter atmospheric lifetime than CO₂ but a far higher 20-year warming potential, making rapid reduction especially impactful?
- Nitrous oxide
- Methane (Correct answer)
- Sulfur hexafluoride
- Hydrofluorocarbons
Correct answer: Methane
Methane persists roughly 12 years but warms the climate about 80 times more than CO₂ over 20 years, so cutting it yields fast near-term benefits.
Question 3: An emissions trading scheme (cap-and-trade) controls total emissions by:
- Taxing each ton of CO₂ at a fixed rate
- Setting an overall cap and letting firms buy and sell allowances (Correct answer)
- Requiring all firms to use renewable energy
- Banning new fossil fuel extraction permits
Correct answer: Setting an overall cap and letting firms buy and sell allowances
Cap-and-trade sets a ceiling on total allowed emissions and issues tradable permits, letting the market find the cheapest ways to reduce pollution.
Question 4: Why is building energy efficiency often called a 'first fuel' in mitigation strategies?
- It generates electricity like a power plant
- Saved energy is the cheapest and cleanest energy source (Correct answer)
- It requires no upfront investment
- It works only in new construction
Correct answer: Saved energy is the cheapest and cleanest energy source
Energy not consumed avoids both cost and emissions, making efficiency improvements the lowest-cost mitigation option before adding any new supply.
Question 5: The 'just transition' principle in climate mitigation planning specifically addresses:
- Moving electricity grids to direct current
- Ensuring workers in fossil fuel industries are not left behind economically (Correct answer)
- Transitioning vehicles from gasoline to hydrogen
- Switching building heating from oil to heat pumps
Correct answer: Ensuring workers in fossil fuel industries are not left behind economically
Just transition frameworks pair decarbonization with retraining, social support, and economic development to protect communities dependent on fossil fuel jobs.
Question 6: Which mitigation approach involves capturing CO₂ directly from the atmosphere using machines rather than natural systems?
- Bioenergy with carbon capture (BECCS)
- Direct air capture (DAC) (Correct answer)
- Enhanced weathering
- Soil carbon sequestration
Correct answer: Direct air capture (DAC)
Direct air capture uses chemical processes to pull CO₂ directly from ambient air and store or utilize it, unlike nature-based approaches.
Question 7: Reducing food waste is a climate mitigation strategy because decomposing organic waste in landfills primarily releases:
- Carbon dioxide
- Ozone
- Methane (Correct answer)
- Nitrous oxide
Correct answer: Methane
Anaerobic decomposition of food in landfills generates methane, a potent short-lived greenhouse gas, making waste reduction a high-impact mitigation measure.
Climate Change Mitigation Plans 3
Demand-side mitigation strategies focus primarily on: