Key Idea: Topic 2.3 is about how the world responds to climate change — and there are two answers that work together: 2.3.1 — mitigation: tackle the causes. Cut greenhouse-gas emissions (renewables, carbon pricing, carbon capture) or remove CO₂ from the air, through technology, policy and international agreements. 2.3.2 — adaptation, resilience & agreements: adjust to the effects already coming (sea walls, drought-tolerant crops) and build resilience so a place can recover. Because emissions cross borders, much of the response is geopolitical — the Paris Agreement, Kyoto, the IPCC, carbon trading and the UN SDGs. This is core content, examined on Paper 2 — a short structured Explain of a strategy, a data-response read off a graph, and the markband 'to what extent' essay.
♻️ 2.3.1 — Mitigation: reducing the causes
Mitigation attacks the source of climate change — it cuts or removes greenhouse-gas emissions so warming slows. The skill examiners test is naming a strategy and giving its mechanism: strategy → how it works → lower emissions. Top answers name a real scheme and give its effect.
🛡️ 2.3.2 — Adaptation, resilience & global agreements
Adaptation manages the impacts already arriving — defending and adjusting rather than reducing emissions. Doing both builds resilience: the capacity to absorb shocks and bounce back. Because a tonne of CO₂ warms the planet wherever it is emitted, no country can fix this alone — so much of the response is geopolitical, run through global agreements.
If a strategy reduces emissions, it is mitigation (renewables, carbon trading, carbon capture). If it helps people live with the effects — sea walls, drought-resistant crops, early-warning systems — it is adaptation. Global agreements can do both: Paris drives mitigation through pledges, and climate finance funds adaptation in poorer nations.
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Exam Tips
- Keep the line clear: mitigation = cut the CAUSES (emissions); adaptation = manage the EFFECTS (defences). Examiners penalise mixing them.
- For an 'Explain', give the MECHANISM: strategy → how it works → lower emissions. Naming a strategy alone earns only part of the marks.
- Always name a REAL scheme — Costa Rica, EU ETS / carbon trading, the Paris Agreement, the SDGs — and state its effect, not just 'use renewables'.
- The Paris Agreement works through shared targets → national pledges → COP reviews; Kyoto bound only developed countries, which is why Paris included all.
- For a graph (e.g. CO₂ emissions over time): DESCRIBE first — overall trend + figures with units — before any explanation.
- On the [10] To-what-extent essay, argue BOTH sides with named examples and finish on an explicit, justified judgement.