Topics Covered
MDGs and SDGs
Anthropogenic Impacts
Air, Water, Soil and Noise Pollution
Waste Management
Climate Change
Pollutants and Health
Energy Resources
Disaster Management
Environment (Protection) Act 1986
NAPCC
International Environmental Agreements
Contents
- 1. Development and Environment: the MDGs and the SDGs
- 2. Human and Environment Interaction
- 3. Environmental Issues: Local, Regional and Global
- 4. Pollution and Waste
- 5. Climate Change and its Dimensions
- 6. Impacts of Pollutants on Human Health
- 7. Natural and Energy Resources
- 8. Natural Hazards and Disasters: Mitigation
- 9. The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
- 10. The National Action Plan on Climate Change
- 11. International Agreements and Efforts
Topic Overview — What & Why
Unit IX is the environment unit, and the most fact-heavy of Paper I. Its questions turn on dates and counts (how many SDGs, when the Paris Agreement was adopted, how many missions the NAPCC has), on matching (a pollutant with its disease, an agreement with its subject), and on definitions (BOD, AQI, mitigation). Learn the tables in this unit; most questions are one of their rows.
- Development goals: 8 MDGs for 2000–2015, then 17 SDGs with 169 targets for 2015–2030.
- Pollution and waste: the main measures (AQI, BOD, decibels) and India's waste rules.
- Climate: the greenhouse gases, the IPCC, and what climate change does to economies and politics.
- Law and agreements: the 1986 Act, the 2008 plan with its eight missions, and the agreements from Stockholm 1972 to Paris 2015.
1. Development and Environment: the MDGs and the SDGs
Sustainable development, in the Brundtland Report, Our Common Future (1987), is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".
| Millennium Development Goals | Sustainable Development Goals | |
|---|---|---|
| Adopted | From the UN Millennium Declaration, September 2000 | In Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda, September 2015 |
| Period | 2000–2015 | 2015–2030 |
| Number | 8 goals | 17 goals and 169 targets |
| Applied to | Mainly developing countries | All countries |
The eight MDGs: end extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; gender equality; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; environmental sustainability; a global partnership for development.
The 17 SDGs: 1 no poverty; 2 zero hunger; 3 good health and well-being; 4 quality education; 5 gender equality; 6 clean water and sanitation; 7 affordable and clean energy; 8 decent work and economic growth; 9 industry, innovation and infrastructure; 10 reduced inequalities; 11 sustainable cities and communities; 12 responsible consumption and production; 13 climate action; 14 life below water; 15 life on land; 16 peace, justice and strong institutions; 17 partnerships for the goals.
EXAMPLE 1
A question asks which SDG is "quality education". SDG 4. Climate action is SDG 13; life below water, SDG 14.
EXAMPLE 2
In India, NITI Aayog publishes an SDG India Index that scores states on the goals. It is an example of turning the global goals into national measures.
2. Human and Environment Interaction
Anthropogenic means caused by human activity. The main activities and their impacts:
| Activity | Impacts |
|---|---|
| Agriculture | Deforestation, soil erosion, fertiliser and pesticide run-off, falling water tables |
| Industry and energy | Air and water pollution, greenhouse gases, hazardous waste |
| Urbanisation | Loss of land and wetlands, waste, heat islands, traffic pollution |
| Mining | Land degradation, acid drainage, displacement of people |
| Transport | Vehicle emissions, noise, fragmentation of habitats |
The IPAT identity sums it up: environmental Impact = Population × Affluence (consumption per person) × Technology (impact per unit of consumption).
EXAMPLE 1
Clearing mangroves for shrimp farms removes a coastal barrier against storm surges: an anthropogenic activity that raises a natural hazard's damage.
EXAMPLE 2
A city's population is stable, but each household doubles its electricity use from coal. Impact rises through A (affluence), not P.
3. Environmental Issues: Local, Regional and Global
| Scale | Examples |
|---|---|
| Local | A polluted lake, a city's garbage dump, noise near a highway, a factory's effluent |
| Regional | Acid rain across borders, river pollution along a basin (the Ganga), crop-residue burning and the winter smog of north India, desertification |
| Global | Climate change, ozone depletion, loss of biodiversity, plastic in the oceans |
EXAMPLE 1
Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana adds to the air pollution of Delhi, hundreds of kilometres away. A regional issue.
EXAMPLE 2
Chlorofluorocarbons released anywhere thin the ozone layer over Antarctica. A global issue, which is why it needed a global treaty.
4. Pollution and Waste
Air
- Main pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and the finer PM2.5, under 2.5 micrometres), sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, ground-level ozone, ammonia and lead.
- India's National Air Quality Index (2014) reports air quality in six categories, from good to severe, based on eight pollutants.
Water
- BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) is the oxygen micro-organisms need to break down the organic matter in water. A high BOD means heavy organic pollution, such as sewage.
- Eutrophication: nutrients (nitrates, phosphates) feed algal blooms that use up the oxygen, and fish die.
Soil and noise
- Soil pollution comes from pesticides, excess fertiliser, industrial waste and plastics; it reduces fertility and enters the food chain.
- Noise is measured in decibels (dB), a logarithmic scale: every 10 dB is ten times the sound intensity. The Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000 set limits by zone: silence zones (near hospitals and schools) have the strictest.
Waste
| Waste | Examples | Rules in India |
|---|---|---|
| Solid | Household and market garbage | Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016: segregation at source into wet, dry and domestic hazardous |
| Liquid | Sewage, industrial effluent | The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 |
| Biomedical | Hospital waste: dressings, sharps, body parts | Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016, with colour-coded bags (yellow, red, white, blue) |
| Hazardous | Toxic, corrosive or flammable industrial waste | Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016 |
| Electronic | Discarded phones, computers, batteries | E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, built on extended producer responsibility |
The waste hierarchy, most preferred first: reduce, reuse, recycle, recover (energy), dispose.
EXAMPLE 1
A river stretch downstream of a town's sewage outfall shows a high BOD and low dissolved oxygen. The organic load is using up the oxygen.
EXAMPLE 2
Under extended producer responsibility, a phone maker must arrange for a share of its old phones to be collected and recycled. That is the principle of the E-Waste Rules.
5. Climate Change and its Dimensions
- The greenhouse effect: gases in the atmosphere let sunlight in but trap outgoing heat. The six gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride. Carbon dioxide contributes most to warming; methane is far stronger per tonne but shorter-lived.
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and UNEP, assesses the science.
- Socio-economic dimensions: lower crop yields, water stress, heat waves, coastal flooding, migration, and the heaviest burden on the poor, who contributed least.
- Political dimensions: who should cut emissions and who should pay. The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR), set out at Rio in 1992, holds that all countries must act but developed countries, which emitted most, should lead. Climate justice and the fund for loss and damage, agreed at the climate conference of 2022, follow from it.
- Mitigation cuts emissions (renewable energy, efficiency, forests as carbon sinks); adaptation copes with change already happening (drought-resistant crops, sea walls, early warnings).
EXAMPLE 1
Planting mangroves along a coast both stores carbon (mitigation) and protects against storm surges (adaptation).
EXAMPLE 2
A question asks which principle lets developing countries take on less stringent commitments. Common but differentiated responsibilities.
6. Impacts of Pollutants on Human Health
| Pollutant | Effect |
|---|---|
| PM2.5, PM10 | Respiratory and heart disease, lung cancer |
| Lead | Damage to the nervous system, especially children's development |
| Mercury | Minamata disease (Japan, 1950s), a disorder of the nervous system |
| Cadmium | Itai-itai disease (Japan): softening of bones, kidney damage |
| Arsenic in groundwater | Arsenicosis: skin lesions, cancers (notably in parts of the Ganga basin) |
| Excess fluoride in water | Dental and skeletal fluorosis |
| Nitrate in drinking water | Methaemoglobinaemia ("blue baby syndrome") in infants |
| Methyl isocyanate | The Bhopal gas tragedy of December 1984 |
| Noise | Hearing loss, stress, sleep disturbance, high blood pressure |
EXAMPLE 1
Villagers drinking from wells with high fluoride develop mottled teeth and stiff joints: fluorosis.
EXAMPLE 2
A question matches mercury with a disease. Minamata disease; itai-itai belongs to cadmium.
7. Natural and Energy Resources
| Resource | Kind | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Solar | Renewable | Photovoltaic panels and solar thermal; India has high solar radiation for most of the year |
| Wind | Renewable | Turbines; best on coasts and open plains (Tamil Nadu, Gujarat) |
| Soil | Renewable only slowly | Forms over centuries; lost quickly by erosion |
| Hydro | Renewable | Large dams and small hydro; displacement and ecological costs |
| Geothermal | Renewable | Heat from the Earth; India's best-known site is the Puga valley in Ladakh |
| Biomass | Renewable | Wood, crop residue, dung; biogas from anaerobic digestion |
| Nuclear | Non-renewable fuel, low carbon | Uranium today; India's three-stage programme aims to use its thorium |
| Forests | Renewable if managed | Timber, fuel, water regulation, biodiversity, carbon sinks |
Fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) are non-renewable and the main source of carbon dioxide. India's updated Nationally Determined Contribution (2022) commits to reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 45% by 2030 from the 2005 level, and to about 50% of installed electric power capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030; India has announced a goal of net-zero emissions by 2070.
EXAMPLE 1
A village digester turns cattle dung into cooking gas and leaves slurry for fertiliser. Biomass energy, as biogas.
EXAMPLE 2
A question asks which source is renewable but location-bound and draws on the Earth's internal heat. Geothermal.
8. Natural Hazards and Disasters: Mitigation
- A hazard is a threatening event (cyclone, earthquake, flood, drought, landslide, tsunami, heat wave); it becomes a disaster when it overwhelms a community's capacity to cope. Risk = hazard × vulnerability ÷ capacity, in the usual shorthand.
- The disaster management cycle: mitigation and preparedness before, response during, recovery and reconstruction after.
- Mitigation is structural (embankments, cyclone shelters, earthquake-resistant buildings) or non-structural (zoning, building codes, insurance, early warning, awareness).
- In India, the Disaster Management Act, 2005 created the National Disaster Management Authority, chaired by the Prime Minister, and state and district authorities; the National Disaster Response Force is the specialised response force.
- Internationally, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 followed the Hyogo Framework (2005–2015).
EXAMPLE 1
Odisha's cyclone shelters, early warnings and evacuation plans cut deaths sharply between the cyclone of 1999 and later storms of similar strength. Mitigation and preparedness at work.
EXAMPLE 2
A town forbids new houses on a river's flood plain. Non-structural mitigation, by land-use zoning.
9. The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
- Enacted after the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984, under Article 253 of the Constitution, to give effect to the decisions of the Stockholm Conference of 1972.
- An umbrella law: it empowers the Central Government to take all measures to protect and improve the environment, set standards for emissions and discharges, regulate hazardous substances, and close or restrict polluting industries.
- Many rules are made under it: the Environment Impact Assessment notification (2006), and the waste rules above.
- Other laws to know: the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972; the Water Act, 1974; the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980; the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981; the Biological Diversity Act, 2002; the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010.
EXAMPLE 1
A new highway project must have its environmental impact assessed before clearance. That requirement comes from the EIA notification issued under the 1986 Act.
EXAMPLE 2
A question asks which law followed the Bhopal disaster as an umbrella environmental statute. The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
10. The National Action Plan on Climate Change
The NAPCC was released in 2008. It has eight national missions:
- National Solar Mission
- National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency
- National Mission on Sustainable Habitat
- National Water Mission
- National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem
- National Mission for a Green India
- National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture
- National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change
States prepare their own State Action Plans on Climate Change in the same frame.
EXAMPLE 1
A question lists five missions and asks which is not in the NAPCC. Anything outside the eight above, such as a "National Nuclear Mission", is the answer.
EXAMPLE 2
Afforestation of degraded land falls under the Green India Mission; rooftop solar targets, under the Solar Mission.
11. International Agreements and Efforts
| Agreement or event | Year | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment | 1972 | The first UN environment conference; led to UNEP; 5 June became World Environment Day |
| Vienna Convention | 1985 | Protection of the ozone layer (the framework) |
| Montreal Protocol | 1987 | Phasing out ozone-depleting substances (CFCs); the Kigali Amendment (2016) adds HFCs |
| Rio Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development, the Earth Summit) | 1992 | Produced the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, the Forest Principles, and opened the UNFCCC and the CBD for signature |
| Convention on Biological Diversity | 1992 (in force 1993) | Conservation, sustainable use, and fair sharing of benefits from genetic resources; its protocols are Cartagena (biosafety, 2000) and Nagoya (access and benefit-sharing, 2010) |
| Kyoto Protocol | 1997 (in force 2005) | Binding emission cuts for developed (Annex I) countries; carbon trading and the Clean Development Mechanism |
| Rio+20 | 2012 | "The Future We Want"; began the process that led to the SDGs |
| Paris Agreement | 2015 (in force 2016) | Hold warming well below 2°C and pursue 1.5°C; every country sets its own Nationally Determined Contribution |
| International Solar Alliance | 2015 | Launched by India and France at the Paris conference to promote solar energy; headquartered in Gurugram, India |
EXAMPLE 1
A question asks which agreement deals with the ozone layer. The Montreal Protocol (with the Vienna Convention); Kyoto and Paris concern greenhouse gases.
EXAMPLE 2
A question asks where the International Solar Alliance is headquartered. In India, at Gurugram; India and France launched it in 2015.
Exam pointers for Unit IX.
- MDGs: 8, 2000–2015. SDGs: 17 goals, 169 targets, 2015–2030. SDG 4 is quality education; SDG 13, climate action.
- High BOD = heavy organic pollution. AQI: six categories. Noise in decibels.
- Waste rules of 2016 (solid, plastic, biomedical, hazardous); e-waste rules of 2022.
- Mercury – Minamata; cadmium – itai-itai; fluoride – fluorosis; nitrate – blue baby syndrome.
- Disaster Management Act 2005; NDMA chaired by the Prime Minister; Sendai Framework 2015–2030.
- Environment (Protection) Act 1986, after Bhopal. NAPCC 2008, eight missions.
- Montreal 1987 ozone; Rio 1992; CBD 1992; Kyoto 1997; Paris 2015; ISA 2015, Gurugram.
Final Revision Checklist
- Sustainable development (Brundtland); the 8 MDGs and the 17 SDGs.
- Anthropogenic impacts and IPAT; issues by scale.
- Air, water, soil and noise pollution and their measures; the five kinds of waste and their rules.
- Greenhouse gases, the IPCC, CBDR, mitigation and adaptation.
- Pollutants and their diseases.
- The eight energy resources in the syllabus; India's NDC.
- Hazard, disaster, the cycle, mitigation; the 2005 Act and Sendai.
- The 1986 Act and other environmental laws; the eight NAPCC missions; the agreements table.
Sources
- United Nations: the Millennium Declaration (2000); Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015): sdgs.un.org.
- UNFCCC: the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, and India's updated Nationally Determined Contribution (August 2022): unfccc.int.
- UNEP Ozone Secretariat: the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol: ozone.unep.org. Convention on Biological Diversity: cbd.int.
- Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change: the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; the waste management rules of 2016 and the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022; the National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008): moef.gov.in. Central Pollution Control Board: the National Air Quality Index: cpcb.nic.in.
- National Disaster Management Authority, the Disaster Management Act, 2005: ndma.gov.in. UNDRR, the Sendai Framework: undrr.org.
- International Solar Alliance: isa.int.