Home › Subjects › O-Level Geography › Climate Action (Topic 3.3)

O-Level Climate Action (Topic 3.3)

why climate risks vary and how mitigation and adaptation build resilience

What the syllabus expects

• Climate action treats adaptation and mitigation as complementary responses that may bring both risks and benefits.
  Scope: How climate action supports sustainable development
• Climate change acts as a threat multiplier, worsening other threats to natural and human systems and producing uneven climate-related effects.
  Scope: How climate action supports sustainable development
• Because its impacts fall unevenly across the globe, climate change limits development paths and adds extra burdens on disadvantaged communities and developing countries.
  Scope: How climate action supports sustainable development
• Climate risk arises from the interaction between climate-related hazards and the exposure and vulnerability of human and natural systems, leading to possible loss of life and property damage.
  Scope: Why climate risks differ from place to place
• Climate-related hazards range from shorter-term events such as cyclones and floods to longer-term ones such as sea level rise and droughts.
  Scope: Why climate risks differ from place to place
• Vulnerability and exposure describe conditions that make a community more likely to suffer shortages of water, food and health resources under extreme weather, and the exposure of areas near coasts and dry environments.
  Scope: Why climate risks differ from place to place
• Mitigation means changing the way societies use and produce energy and manage land, though its effectiveness is constrained by technological, economic, social and institutional challenges.
  Scope: How effective mitigation strategies are at building resilience
• Strategies that cut greenhouse gas emissions include international agreements and cooperation, low-carbon technologies, clean energy sources and shifts in consumption patterns.
  Scope: How effective mitigation strategies are at building resilience
• Strategies that boost carbon sinks include protecting oceans and forests through land-use change and safeguarding forests via regeneration.
  Scope: How effective mitigation strategies are at building resilience
• Adaptation requires actions that reduce the harm climate change causes, with effectiveness held back by technological, economic, social and institutional challenges.
  Scope: How effective adaptation strategies are at building resilience
• Structural and technological adaptation covers water and flood management and the use of technology to produce food.
  Scope: How effective adaptation strategies are at building resilience
• Social and institutional adaptation covers raising awareness and education alongside national and regional policies.
  Scope: How effective adaptation strategies are at building resilience

How it's examined

About 4% of the past-paper style questions in Rae's bank for this subject sit in this topic.

More O-Level Geography topics

Thinking Geographically (Topic 1.1) · Sustainable Development (Topic 1.2) · Geographical Methods (Topic 1.3) · Tourism Activity (Topic 2.1) · Tourism Development (Topic 2.2) · Sustainable Tourism Development (Topic 2.3) · all of O-Level Geography