HSC Geography · Human–Environment Interactions

# 13.4 Challenges, Opportunities & Responses

Chapter 13 · Climate Change · NESA Stage 6 (2022) · Revision deck
By the end you can…

## Learning goals

- Distinguish mitigation from adaptation.
- Evaluate the Paris Agreement.
- List the mitigation toolkit & define net-zero.
- Explain adaptation & its limits (Tuvalu).
- Detail & evaluate the Costa Rica case.

Section 1

# Two kinds of response

## Mitigation vs adaptation

Mitigation

Reduce the cause: renewables, EVs, reforestation, cutting methane.

Adaptation

Reduce the harm: flood defences, drought-tough crops, warning systems.

Most real responses use both.

Section 2

# The Paris Agreement

## The global mitigation effort (2015)

- Hold warming well below 2°C; pursue 1.5°C.
- Nearly every country signed.
- Catch: voluntary, self-set, weak enforcement; countries can withdraw (USA 2017→rejoined 2021).

Evaluate: near-universal ambition, but effectiveness depends on delivery.

Section 3

# The mitigation toolkit

## Cutting emissions & removing carbon

Energy & transport

Solar & wind; electric vehicles (~6.4m sold in 2021).

Carbon sinks

Reforestation; biochar.

Innovation

Asparagopsis seaweed cattle feed cuts methane (CSIRO).

Net-zero = emissions balanced by removals. The goal of national plans.

Section 4

# Adaptation & its limits

## Case study: Tuvalu

A low-lying Pacific nation threatened by sea-level rise

Losing land & freshwater; raising the prospect of climate refugees. The Netherlands can adapt with flood defences — but Tuvalu's survival needs the world to mitigate.

Sustainability Interconnection

Adaptation has physical limits — and a stark equity dimension.

Section 5 · Case study

# Costa Rica

## A national success story

~99% renewable

electricity (hydro, wind — e.g. Tilarán — geothermal).

Decarbonising

net-zero plan; electric buses.

Reforestation

reversed deforestation; ecotourism ties it to the economy.

Evaluate: hugely successful — but small, hydro-rich; not every country can copy it.

Recap

# 13.4 in one screen

## Pull it together

- Mitigation (reduce cause) vs adaptation (reduce harm).
- Paris Agreement: universal but voluntary.
- Toolkit: renewables, EVs, sinks, innovation; net-zero.
- Adaptation limits — Tuvalu; equity.
- Costa Rica: multi-strand national response.

Chapter 13 complete. Next: Chapter 14 — Contemporary Hazard: Bushfires.

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