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.
SustainabilityInterconnection
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.
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.