Environment and climate in the news

Environment is one of the most dependable areas in CLAT current affairs. Every year brings a UN climate conference, new protected areas, reports on emissions and biodiversity, and court rulings on pollution and forests. It also overlaps with Legal Reasoning more than any other GK topic: doctrines such as "polluter pays" and absolute liability came out of Indian environmental cases and turn up as legal principles in passages.

The background here is stable. The Paris Agreement, the Ramsar Convention and the Environment (Protection) Act have been in place for decades. Learn them properly and each year's news is an update, not a new subject.

What to track

• The annual UN climate conference (COP): host city and country, and the one or two headline outcomes.
• Other conventions: biodiversity COPs, wetlands, ozone, wildlife trade, desertification.
• India's climate commitments and progress on them.
• Indian laws and amendments on forests, wildlife, pollution and biodiversity.
• Court rulings from the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal.
• New protected areas: tiger reserves, Ramsar sites, biosphere reserves.
• Major reports: IPCC assessments, UNEP's emissions gap reports, biodiversity assessments.

The climate regime in one table

India announced a net-zero target for 2070 at COP26 in Glasgow (2021). Its updated NDC of 2022 commits to reducing the emissions intensity of GDP by 45% from 2005 levels by 2030, and to about 50% of installed electric power capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030.

Other conventions

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), set up in 1988 by the WMO and UNEP, assesses climate science. It does not do its own research; it reviews published research.

Indian laws and constitutional duties

• Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
• Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974
• Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, amended and renamed in 2023 as the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam
• Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981
• Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, passed after the Bhopal gas tragedy
• Biological Diversity Act, 2002
• National Green Tribunal Act, 2010

The 42nd Amendment (1976) added Article 48A (a Directive Principle on protecting the environment) and Article 51A(g) (a citizen's fundamental duty to protect it). Courts have read the right to a clean environment into Article 21.

Court doctrines you should know

For how absolute liability differs from strict liability, see strict and absolute liability.

A sample CLAT-style passage

International action on climate change rests on a treaty adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the [1]. It set an ultimate objective of stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, but it contained no binding targets. Its parties meet every year at a Conference of the Parties, or COP.

The first attempt at binding targets came in 1997 with the Kyoto Protocol. It required developed countries, listed in an annex, to cut their emissions by agreed amounts, while developing countries had no binding obligations. This reflected a principle written into the 1992 treaty: common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. All countries share responsibility for the problem, but those that emitted most in the past, and have the most resources, should do more. The Protocol's weakness was its limited reach. Some large emitters never took on targets under it, and emissions from developing economies grew quickly.

The Paris Agreement of 2015 took a different route. Instead of assigning targets from above, it asks every party to set its own, known as nationally determined contributions, and to submit new ones every five years, each more ambitious than the last. The collective goal is to hold the rise in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. Every five years, a global stocktake assesses whether the world is on track.

Money has been the other fault line. In 2009, developed countries pledged to mobilise $100 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2020, a goal that was reached only later than promised. Developing countries also pressed for a fund to address loss and damage, meaning harm from climate change that can no longer be avoided by cutting emissions or adapting. Agreement to set up such a fund came at COP27 in Egypt in 2022.

Critics note that nothing in the Paris Agreement forces a country to meet its own contribution; the system relies on transparency and peer pressure. Supporters respond that universal participation was impossible under the Kyoto model and that a flexible agreement everyone joins is better than a strict one many ignore.

Q1. Which treaty fills [1]?

(a) Kyoto Protocol (b) Montreal Protocol (c) Convention on Biological Diversity (d) United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Q2. According to the passage, how did the Kyoto Protocol treat developing countries?

(a) They had no binding obligations.
(b) They had binding targets stricter than developed countries'.
(c) They were excluded from the Protocol.
(d) They set their own nationally determined contributions.

Q3. Under the Paris Agreement, as described, how often must new contributions be submitted?

(a) Every year (b) Every three years (c) Every five years (d) Every ten years

Q4. The principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" means that:

(a) only developed countries are responsible for climate change
(b) all countries share responsibility, but those with greater past emissions and resources should do more
(c) every country must cut emissions by the same percentage
(d) developing countries must compensate developed countries

Q5. The Montreal Protocol, one option in Q1, deals with:

(a) wetlands (b) migratory species (c) desertification (d) substances that deplete the ozone layer

Answers:

1. (d) Adopted at Rio in 1992, a framework with no binding targets, with annual COPs: the UNFCCC. The CBD was also adopted at Rio, but it concerns biodiversity.
2. (a) Stated in the second paragraph.
3. (c) Stated in the third paragraph.
4. (b) Explained in the second paragraph. (a) overstates it; the passage says all countries share responsibility.
5. (d) Background. Wetlands are the Ramsar Convention, desertification is the UNCCD, and migratory species is the CMS.

Common mistakes

• Confusing Kyoto and Paris. Kyoto: targets from above, developed countries only. Paris: self-set targets, every party.
• Memorising counts. The number of Ramsar sites and tiger reserves in India changes often. Note the latest figure only in the final month.
• Mixing up Montreal and Kyoto. Montreal is ozone; Kyoto is greenhouse gases.
• Ignoring the legal link. Environmental doctrines are among the most common legal principles in CLAT passages.

What to do next

• Reproduce the climate regime table and the conventions table from memory.
• Learn the five court doctrines with their cases.
• Note the host and headline outcome of the latest COP when it happens.
• In the final month, check the current number of Ramsar sites and tiger reserves.
• Read international affairs and organisations and legal current affairs.