Read the passage and answer the questions:
Environmental concerns have a long history; awareness of environmental consequences of economic growth acquired an increasingly political character from 1960s onwards. The Club of Rome, a global think tank, published a book of 1972 entitled Limits to Growth, dramatising the potential depletion of Earth’s resources against backdrop of rapidly growing world population. International agencies, including United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), began holding international conferences and promoting detailed studies to get a more coordinated and effective response to environmental problems. Since then, environment has emerged as a significant issue of global politics. The growing focus on environmental issues within arena of global politics was firmly consolidated at United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, of June 1992. This was also called Earth Summit. The summit revealed that countries of First World, generally referred to as ‘global North’, were pursuing a different environmental agenda than poor and developing countries of Third World, called ‘global South’. Whereas Northern states were concerned with ozone depletion and global warming, Southern states were anxious to address relationship between economic development and environmental management.
What is the key difference between the global North and global South regarding environmental concern?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Global North raised concern on ozone depletion and global warming while global South stressed on development and environmental management
Option (1) Global North focussed on conservation and global South focussed on wildlife protection — Incorrect. The passage names ozone depletion and global warming as the North’s concerns, not conservation, and the South’s concern was development, not wildlife.
Option (2) Global North focussed on pollution and global South stressed on development — Incorrect. The North’s concerns were ozone depletion and global warming, and the South linked development with environmental management; the option is only half right.
Option (3) Global North rejected the environmental politics while the global South supported it — Incorrect. Both took part in environmental politics; they pursued different agendas.
Option (4) Global North raised concern on ozone depletion and global warming while global South stressed on development and environmental management — Correct. At the Earth Summit, the Northern states were concerned with ozone depletion and global warming, while the Southern states were anxious to address the relationship between economic development and environmental management.
NCERT: Contemporary World Politics — Chapter 6: Environment and Natural Resources (2025-26)
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