Read the passage and answer the questions:
Environment and natural resources
According to the Human Development Report 2016 of the United Nations Development Programme, 663 million people in developing countries have no access to safe water and 2.4 billion have no access to sanitation, resulting in the death of more than three million children every year. The Club of Rome, a global think tank, published a book in 1972 entitled ‘Limits to Growth’, dramatising the potential depletion of the Earth’s resources against the backdrop of rapidly growing world population. The growing focus on environmental issues within the arena of global politics was firmly consolidated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. This was also called the Earth Summit. ‘Commons’ are those resources which are not owned by anyone but rather shared by a community. Cooperation over the global commons is not easy. There have been many path-breaking agreements such as the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, the 1987 Montreal Protocol, and the 1991 Antarctic Environmental Protocol. To address environmental issues, the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) provides that the parties should act to protect the climate system “on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.”
Which among the following are path-breaking agreements for Cooperation over the global commons?
(A) the 1959 Antarctic Treaty
(B) the 1987 Montreal Protocol
(C) the 1986 Inuit Treaty
(D) the 1991 Antarctic Environmental Protocol
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (A), (B) and (D) only
(A) the 1959 Antarctic Treaty Correct.
(B) the 1987 Montreal Protocol Correct.
(C) the 1986 Inuit Treaty Incorrect. The three agreements the passage names are the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, the 1987 Montreal Protocol and the 1991 Antarctic Environmental Protocol; a 1986 Inuit Treaty is not among them.
(D) the 1991 Antarctic Environmental Protocol Correct. These three are the path-breaking agreements the passage names for cooperation over the global commons.
NCERT (2025-26): “The Protection of Global Commons … areas or regions of the world which are located outside the sovereign jurisdiction of any one state, and therefore require common governance by the international community. These are known as res communis humanitatis or global commons. They include the earth’s atmosphere, Antarctica (see Box), the ocean floor, and outer space. Cooperation over the global commons is not easy. There have been many path-breaking agreements such as the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, the 1987 Montreal Protocol, and the 1991 Antarctic Environmental Protocol.…” |