Paper I - People, Development and Environment
People, Development and Environment tests the human-environment relationship: resources, biodiversity, pollution, climate change, sustainable development, environmental governance and disaster risk.
Core concepts
- Sustainable development meets present needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet theirs (Brundtland, 1987).
- Biodiversity has genetic, species and ecosystem levels; hotspots have high endemism and habitat loss.
- Primary pollutants are emitted directly; secondary pollutants form in the atmosphere, such as ground-level ozone.
- International milestones: Stockholm 1972 on the human environment; Rio 1992 on biodiversity, climate and Agenda 21, with common but differentiated responsibilities; Kyoto 1997 with binding targets for developed countries; Paris 2015 with nationally determined contributions and a temperature goal well below 2 degrees Celsius, pursuing 1.5 degrees.
- India's Environmental Protection Act 1986 followed the Bhopal gas tragedy; polluter-pays and precautionary principles are judicially recognised.
Worked example
A question asks which instrument established common but differentiated responsibilities. The reasoning should point to the 1992 Rio Declaration, not Kyoto: Rio articulated the principle broadly; Kyoto translated it into differentiated targets for Annex I parties.
Traps that cost marks
Mixing Stockholm and Rio; treating the Paris Agreement as imposing binding greenhouse-gas targets on all parties; confusing ozone depletion with climate change; ignoring social dimensions of sustainability.