What this lesson teaches
I can use ice and ocean cores to explain how climate varied during the Quaternary.
Syllabus 8834, Topic 1.2, 1. The Science of Climate Change. Is climate variability a new phenomenon in Earth's history?
Make a guess
About a third of Pakistan was flooded in 2022, affecting 33 million people. What share of global emissions does Pakistan produce?
- Less than 1% of the world's emissions.
- About half, which is why it flooded so badly.
- About a fifth, like the USA's historic share.
Show the answer
Less than 1% of the world's emissions.
Pakistan suffers severe climate impacts while emitting very little. This gap between who emits and who suffers is called climate injustice.
A named place with a date or figure, linked to your point, turns a general answer into a developed one.
This lesson collects the 17 named examples from the lessons in this chapter, so you can revise them in one place. Each one is also a recall card below, so you can save the whole set and review it before an exam.
Solar change and ice-albedo feedback: Arctic sea ice.
Human changes to the carbon cycle: Carbon dioxide levels.
Greenhouse warming and attribution: IPCC, 2021.
Unequal impacts of climate change: Pakistan floods, 2022; Tuvalu; Climate injustice: who emitted the carbon.
Mitigation through emissions and sinks: EU Emissions Trading System; Singapore's carbon tax.
Adaptation choices and limits: Room for the River, Netherlands; Cyclone shelters, Bangladesh; Maldives: Hulhumale; Singapore: NEWater.
Firms, NGOs and states in climate action: Paris Agreement, 2015; Loss and damage fund, 2023; State: Germany's Energiewende; Firm: Orsted, Denmark; State that steps back: the USA and Paris.
To use a case, name the place or organisation, give its date or a figure, then say what it shows about the question. One developed case earns more than a list of names.
- Arctic sea ice
- Summer Arctic sea ice has shrunk by about 13% per decade since satellite records began in 1979. Darker open water absorbs more sunlight, adding to warming.
- Carbon dioxide levels
- Carbon dioxide in the air has risen from about 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution to over 420 ppm today.
- IPCC, 2021
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that it is "unequivocal" that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.
- Pakistan floods, 2022
- About a third of Pakistan was flooded and 33 million people were affected, although Pakistan produces less than 1% of global emissions.
- Tuvalu
- Most of this Pacific nation is only a few metres above sea level. In 2023, Australia agreed to offer Tuvaluans a path to migrate there.
- Climate injustice: who emitted the carbon
- Carbon Brief estimates that the USA caused more than a fifth of all the carbon dioxide released by people from 1850 to 2025, and China about 13%. Pakistan and many African and island states emitted very little, yet face some of the worst floods, droughts and sea-level rise.
- EU Emissions Trading System
- Since 2005, EU power stations and factories must buy permits for each tonne of carbon dioxide they emit, and the number of permits falls over time.
- Singapore's carbon tax
- Introduced in 2019 at S$5 per tonne, it rose to S$25 in 2024 and is planned to rise further.
- Room for the River, Netherlands
- Instead of only raising dykes, the Dutch gave rivers more space to flood safely, for example by moving dykes back and lowering floodplains.
- Cyclone shelters, Bangladesh
- Shelters and warnings cut cyclone deaths sharply, but poor coastal families still lose homes, crops and livelihoods.
- Maldives: Hulhumale
- More than 80% of the Maldives' land is less than 1 m above sea level. Since 1997 the country has built Hulhumale, a reclaimed island beside the capital Male, raised about 2 m above sea level, for housing. It lowers flood risk for its residents, but costs a lot, uses dredged sand and cannot protect every inhabited island.
- Singapore: NEWater
- Since 2003, PUB has treated used water with advanced membranes and ultraviolet light to make ultra-clean NEWater. It can meet up to 40% of Singapore's water demand, so supply depends less on rain and imports during droughts. It needs a lot of energy, so it has costs as well as benefits.
- Paris Agreement, 2015
- Countries set their own targets, called Nationally Determined Contributions, and review them every five years.
- Loss and damage fund, 2023
- At COP28 in Dubai, countries agreed to launch a fund to help vulnerable countries recover from climate disasters.
- State: Germany's Energiewende
- Germany's 'energy transition' uses laws and guaranteed payments to grow wind and solar power. Renewables made about 52.5% of its electricity in 2023 and about 54% in 2024 (UBA). Germany closed its last nuclear plants in April 2023 and plans to end coal power by 2038, so for some years it still burns coal and gas.
- Firm: Orsted, Denmark
- DONG Energy, a Danish oil, gas and coal firm mostly owned by the state, sold its oil and gas business in 2017 and renamed itself Orsted. It now mainly builds offshore wind farms. By 2017 it had cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 52% from 2006. But in 2023 it cancelled two large wind farms off New Jersey, USA, as costs rose, showing firms depend on profits.
- State that steps back: the USA and Paris
- The USA left the Paris Agreement in November 2020, rejoined in February 2021, and in January 2025 announced it would leave again. A change of government can reverse a state's climate policy, so firms, cities and NGOs often keep acting when their national government does not.
Step by step
Name it
The place, event or organisation.
Prove it
A date, number or specific fact.
Link it
Say what it shows about the question.
Worked example: From a name to a developed point
Weak: "There are real examples, such as Arctic sea ice." Strong: "Summer Arctic sea ice has shrunk by about 13% per decade since satellite records began in 1979. Darker open water absorbs more sunlight, adding to warming." The strong version gives the place and the evidence, so it can earn a development mark.
Watch out for this
Naming a famous example is enough to earn the mark.
Examiners credit a developed case: a place, a date or figure, and a clear link to the question.
Check your understanding
Which is the strongest way to use a named example in an answer?
- List several example names, with no details.
- Describe the example in general terms, without a place or figure.
- Give the place, a date or figure, and its link.
Show the answer
Give the place, a date or figure, and its link.
Yes. A located, evidenced and linked case is what earns development marks.