2023 Prelims Questions on Environment/Ecology

 1. Consider the following statements:

Once the Central Government notifies an area as a ‘Community Reserve”

1. the Chief Wildlife Warden of the State becomes the governing authority of such forest
2. hunting is not allowed in such area
3. People of such area are allowed to collect non-timber forest produce.
4. People of such area are allowed traditional agricultural practices.

How many of the above statements are correct?

a) Only one

b) Only two

c) Only three

d) All four

 

2. Consider the following statements:

Statement-I: India, despite having Uranium deposits, depends on coal for most of its electricity production.

Statement-II: Uranium, enriched to the extent of at least 60%, is required for the production of electricity.

Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

a)   Both Statement-I and Statement – II are correct and Statement- II is the correct explanation for Statement- I

b)   Both Statement I and Statement II are correct and Statement-II is not the correct explanation for Statement-I

c)   Statement- I is Correct but Statement-II is incorrect

d)   Statement-I incorrect but Statement-II is correct.

 

3. Consider the following statements:

Statement-I: Marsupials are not naturally found in India.

Statement-II: Marsupials can thrive only in montane grasslands with no predators.

Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

a)   Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is the correct explanation for Statement-I

b)   Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is not the correct explanation for Statement-I

c)   Statement-I is correct Statement-II is incorrect.

d)   Statement-I incorrect but Statement-II is correct.

 

4. Invasive Species Specialist Group’ (that develops Global Invasive Species Database) belongs to which one of the following organizations?

a)   The International Union Conservation of Nature

b)   The United Nations Environment Programme

c)   The United Nations World Commission for Environment and Development

d)   The WorldWide Fund for Nature

 

5. Consider the following fauna:

1. Lion-tailed Macaque
2. Malabar Civet
3. Sambar Deer

How many of the above are generally nocturnal or most active after sunset?

a) Only one

b) Only two

c) All three

d) None

 

6. Which of the following organisms perform waggle dance for others of their kin to indicate the direction and the distance to a source of their food?

a)   Butterflies

b)   Dragonflies

c)   Honeybees

d)   Wasps

 

7. Consider the following statements regarding the Indian squirrels:

1. They build nests by making burrows in the ground.
2. They store their food materials like nuts and seeds in the ground.
3. They are omnivorous.

How many of the above statements are correct?

a) Only one

b) Only two

c) All three

d) None

 

8. Consider the following statements:

1. Some microorganisms can grow in environments with temperature above the boiling point of water.
2. Some microorganisms can grow in environments with temperature below the freezing point of water.
3. Some microorganisms can grow in highly acidic environment with a pH below 3.

How many of the above statements are Correct?

a)   Only one

b)   Only two

c)   All three

d)   None

 

9. Which one of the following makes a tool with a stick to scrape insects from a hole in a tree or a log of wood?

a) Fishing cat

b) Orangutan

c) Otter

d) Sloth bear

 

10. Consider the following:

1. Aerosols
2. Foam agents
3. Fire retardants
4. Lubricants

In the making of how many of the above are hydrofluorocarbons used?

a) Only one

b) Only two

c) Only three

d) All four

 

11. Consider the following trees:

1. Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
2. Mahus (Madhuca indica)
3. Teak (Tectona grandis)

How many of the above are deciduous trees?

a)   Only one

b)   Only two

c)   All three

d)   None

 

12. Which one of the following is the best example of repeated falls in sea level, giving rise to present-day extensive marshland?

a) Bhitarkanika Mangroves

b) Marakkanam Salt Pans

c) Naupada Swamp

d) Rann of Kutch

 

13. Ilmenite and rutile, abundantly available in certain coastal tracts of India, are rich sources of which one of the following?

a) Aluminium

b) Copper

c) Iron

d) Titanium

 

14. About three-fourths of world’s cobalt, a metal required for the manufacture of batteries for electric motor vehicles, is produced by

a) Argentina

b) Botswana

c) the Democratic Republic of the Congo

d) Kazakhstan

 

15. Consider the following statements:

Statement-I: Carbon markets are likely to be one of the most widespread tools in the fight against climate change.

Statement-II: Carbon markets transfer resources from the private sector to the State.

Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is the correct explanation for Statement-I

b) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is not the correct explanation for Statement-I

c) Statement-I is correct but Statements-II is incorrect

d) Statement-I is incorrect but Statement-II is correct

 

16. Which one of the following best describes the concept of ‘Small Farmer Large Field’?

a) Resettlement of a large number of people, uprooted from their countries due to war, by giving them a large cultivable land which they cultivate collectively and share the produce

b) Many marginal farmers in an area organize themselves into groups and synchronize and harmonize selected agricultural operations

c) Many marginal farmers in an area together make a contract with a corporate body and surrender their land to the corporate body for a fixed term for which the corporate body makes a payment of agreed amount to the farmers

d) A company extends loans, technical knowledge and material inputs to a number of small farmers in an area so that they produce the agricultural commodity required by the company for its manufacturing process and commercial production

 

17. Consider the following infrastructure sectors:

1. Affordable housing
2. Mass rapid transport
3. Health care
4. Renewable energy

On how many of the above does UNOPS Sustainable Investments in Infrastructure and Innovation (S3i) initiative focus for its investments?

a) Only one

b) Only two

c) Only three

d) All four

 

18. Consider the following heavy industries:

1. Fertilizer plants
2. Oil refineries
3. Steel plants

Green hydrogen is expected to play a significant role in decarbonizing how many of the above industries?

a) Only one

b) Only two

c) All three

d) None

 

19. Consider the following statements:

Statement-I: The soil in tropical rain forests is rich in nutrients

Statement-II: The high temperature and moisture of tropica rain forests cause dead organic matter in the soil to decompose quickly.

Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

a) Both Statement-I and Statement- are correct and Statement- is the correct explanation for Statement-I.

b) Both Statement-1 and Statement- are correct and Statement-I is not the correct explanation for Statement-1.

c) Statement-l is correct but Statement-II is incorrect.

d) Statement-I is incorrect but Statement-II is correct.

 

20. With reference to coal-based thermal power plants in India, following statements:

1. None of them uses seawater.
2. None of them is set up in water-stressed district.
3. None of them is privately owned.

How many of the above statements are correct?

a) Only one

b) Only two

c) All three

d) None

 

21. Consider the following activities :

1. Spreading finely ground best rock on farmlands extensively
2. Increasing the alkalinity of by adding lime
3. Capturing carbon dioxide released by various industries and pumping into abandoned subterranean mines in the form of carbonated waters

How many of the above activities are often considered and discussed for carbon capture and sequestration?

a) Only one

b) Only two

c) All three

d) None

 

22.Consider the following statements regarding mercury pollution:

1. Gold mining activity is a source of mercury pollution in the world.
2. Coal-based thermal power plants cause mercury pollution.
3. There is no known safe level of exposure to mercury.

How many of the above statements are correct?

a) Only one

b) Only two

e) All three

d) None

 

23.  With reference to green hydrogen, consider the following statements:

1. It can be used directly as a fuel for internal combustion.
2. It can be blended with natural gas and used as fuel for heat or power generation.
3. It can be used in the hydrogen fuel cell to run vehicles.

How many of the above statements are correct?

a) Only one

b) Only two

c) All three

d) None

 

24. Consider the following statements :

Statement-I : According to the United Nations World Water Development Report, 2022, India extracts more than a quarter of the world’s groundwater withdrawal each year.

Statement-II : India needs to extract more than a quarter of the world’s groundwater each year to satisfy the drinking water and sanitation needs of almost 18% of world’s population living in its territory.

Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is the correct explanation for Statement-I.

b) Both Statement-1 and Statement-II are correct and Statement- II is not the correct explanation for Statement-I.

c) Statement-I is correct but Statement-II is incorrect.

d) Statement-I is incorrect but Statement-II is correct.

 

25. Consider the following statements:

1. In Biodiversity the India, Management Committees are key to the realization of the objectives of the Nagoya Protocol.
2. The Biodiversity Management Committees have important functions in determining access and benefit sharing, including the power to levy collection fees on the access of biological resources within its jurisdiction.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 only

b) 2 only

c) Both 1 and 2

d) Neither 1 nor 2

 

Answers

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
c	c	c	a	b	c	b	c	b	d
11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
b	d	d	c	a	b	c	c	d	d
21	22	23	24	25
c	c	c	c	c

 

 

Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was adopted during the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) following a four year consultation and negotiation process. This historic Framework, which supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and builds on the Convention’s previous Strategic Plans, sets out an ambitious pathway to reach the global vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050. Among the Framework’s key elements are 4 goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030. 

The implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework will be guided and supported through a comprehensive package of decisions also adopted at COP 15. This package includes a monitoring framework for the GBF,  an enhanced mechanism for planning, monitoring, reporting and reviewing implementation, the necessary financial resources for implementation, strategic frameworks for capacity development and technical and scientific cooperation, as well as an agreement on digital sequence information on genetic resources.

In adopting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, all Parties committed to setting national targets to implement it, while all other actors have been invited to develop and communicate their own commitments. At the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 2024 in Türkiye, the world will take stock of the targets and commitments that have been set.

The Framework includes four long-term goals related to the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity and 23 targets to be achieved by 2030. 

The four long-term Goals

GOAL A

• The integrity, connectivity and resilience of all ecosystems are maintained, enhanced, or restored, substantially increasing the area of natural ecosystems by 2050;

• Human induced extinction of known threatened species is halted, and, by2050, extinction rate and risk of all species are reduced tenfold, and the abundance of native wild species is increased to healthy and resilient levels;

• The genetic diversity within populations of wild and domesticated species is maintained, safeguarding their adaptive potential.

GOAL B

• Biodiversity is sustainably used and managed and nature’s contributions to people, including ecosystem functions and services, are valued, maintained and enhanced, with those currently in decline being restored, supporting the achievement of sustainable development, for the benefit of present and future generations by 2050.

GOAL C

• The monetary and non-monetary benefits from the utilization of genetic resources, and digital sequence information on genetic resources, and of traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, as applicable, are shared fairly and equitably, including, as appropriate with indigenous peoples and local communities, and substantially increased by 2050, while ensuring traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources is appropriately protected, thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, in accordance with internationally agreed access and benefit-sharing instruments.

GOAL D

• Adequate means of implementation, including financial resources, capacity-building, technical and scientific cooperation, and access to and transfer of technology to fully implement the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework are secured and equitably accessible to all Parties, especially developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition, progressively closing the biodiversity finance gap of $700 billion per year, and aligning financial flows with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.

The 23 Targets

The framework has 23 action-oriented global targets for urgent action over the decade to 2030. The actions set out in each target need to be initiated immediately and completed by 2030. Together, the results will enable achievement towards the outcome-oriented goals for 2050. Actions to reach these targets should be implemented consistently and in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Protocols and other relevant international obligations, taking into account national circumstances, priorities and socioeconomic conditions.

1. Reducing threats to biodiversity

TARGET 1

Ensure that all areas are under participatory integrated biodiversity inclusive spatial planning and/or effective management processes addressing land and sea use change, to bring the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance, including ecosystems of high ecological integrity, close to zero by 2030, while respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.

TARGET 2

Ensure that by 2030 at least 30 per cent of areas of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine ecosystems are under effective restoration, in order to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, ecological integrity and connectivity.

TARGET 3

Ensure and enable that by 2030 at least 30 per cent of terrestrial, inland water, and of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are effectively conserved and managed through ecologically representative, well-connected and equitably governed systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, recognizing indigenous and traditional territories, where applicable, and integrated into wider landscapes, seascapes and the ocean, while ensuring that any sustainable use, where appropriate in such areas, is fully consistent with conservation outcomes, recognizing and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities including over their traditional territories.

TARGET 4

Ensure urgent management actions, to halt human induced extinction of known threatened species and for the recovery and conservation of species, in particular threatened species, to significantly reduce extinction risk, as well as to maintain and restore the genetic diversity within and between populations of native, wild and domesticated species to maintain their adaptive potential, including through in situ and ex situ conservation and sustainable management practices, and effectively manage human-wildlife interactions to minimize human-wildlife conflict for coexistence.

TARGET 5

Ensure that the use, harvesting and trade of wild species is sustainable, safe and legal, preventing overexploitation, minimizing impacts on non-target species and ecosystems, and reducing the risk of pathogen spill-over, applying the ecosystem approach, while respecting and protecting customary sustainable use by indigenous peoples and local communities.

TARGET 6

Eliminate, minimize, reduce and or mitigate the impacts of invasive alien species on biodiversity and ecosystem services by identifying and managing pathways of the introduction of alien species, preventing the introduction and establishment of priority invasive alien species, reducing the rates of introduction and establishment of other known or potential invasive alien species by at least 50 percent, by 2030, eradicating or controlling invasive alien species especially in priority sites, such as islands .

TARGET 7

Reduce pollution risks and the negative impact of pollution from all sources, by2030, to levels that are not harmful to biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, considering cumulative effects, including: reducing excess nutrients lost to the environment by at least half including through more efficient nutrient cycling and use; reducing the overall risk from pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals by at least half including through integrated pest management, based on science, taking into account food security and livelihoods; and also preventing, reducing, and working towards eliminating plastic pollution.

TARGET 8

Minimize the impact of climate change and ocean acidification on biodiversity and increase its resilience through mitigation, adaptation, and disaster risk reduction actions, including through nature-based solution and/or ecosystem-based approaches, while minimizing negative and fostering positive impacts of climate action on biodiversity.

2. Meeting people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing

TARGET 9

Ensure that the management and use of wild species are sustainable, thereby providing social, economic and environmental benefits for people, especially those in vulnerable situations and those most dependent on biodiversity, including through sustainable biodiversity-based activities, products and services that enhance biodiversity, and protecting and encouraging customary sustainable use by indigenous peoples and local communities.

TARGET 10

Ensure that areas under agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry are managed sustainably, in particular through the sustainable use of biodiversity, including through a substantial increase of the application of biodiversity friendly practices, such as sustainable intensification, agroecological and other innovative approaches contributing to the resilience and long-term efficiency and productivity of these production systems and to food security, conserving and restoring biodiversity and maintaining nature’s contributions to people, including ecosystem functions and services.

TARGET 11

Restore, maintain and enhance nature’s contributions to people, including ecosystem functions and services, such as regulation of air, water, and climate, soil health, pollination and reduction of disease risk, as well as protection from natural hazards and disasters, through nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based approaches for the benefit of all people and nature.

TARGET 12

Significantly increase the area and quality and connectivity of, access to, and benefits from green and blue spaces in urban and densely populated areas sustainably, by mainstreaming the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and ensure biodiversity-inclusive urban planning, enhancing native biodiversity, ecological connectivity and integrity, and improving human health and well-being and connection to nature and contributing to inclusive and sustainable urbanization and the provision of ecosystem functions and services.

TARGET 13

Take effective legal, policy, administrative and capacity-building measures at all levels, as appropriate, to ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits that arise from the utilization of genetic resources and from digital sequence information on genetic resources, as well as traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, and facilitating appropriate access to genetic resources, and by 2030 facilitating a significant increase of the benefits shared, in accordance with applicable international access and benefit-sharing instruments.

3. Tools and solutions for implementation and mainstreaming

TARGET 14

Ensure the full integration of biodiversity and its multiple values into policies, regulations, planning and development processes, poverty eradication strategies, strategic environmental assessments, environmental impact assessments and, as appropriate, national accounting, within and across all levels of government and across all sectors, in particular those with significant impacts on biodiversity, progressively aligning all relevant public and private activities, fiscal and financial flows with the goals and targets of this framework.

TARGET 15

Take legal, administrative or policy measures to encourage and enable business, and in particular to ensure that large and transnational companies and financial institutions:

(a) Regularly monitor, assess, and transparently disclose their risks, dependencies and impacts on biodiversity including with requirements for all large as well as transnational companies and financial institutions along their operations, supply and value chains and portfolios;

(b) Provide information needed to consumers to promote sustainable consumption patterns;

(c) Report on compliance with access and benefit-sharing regulations and measures, as applicable;

in order to progressively reduce negative impacts on biodiversity, increase positive impacts, reduce biodiversity-related risks to business and financial institutions, and promote actions to ensure sustainable patterns of production.

TARGET 16

Ensure that people are encouraged and enabled to make sustainable consumption choices including by establishing supportive policy, legislative or regulatory frameworks, improving education and access to relevant and accurate information and alternatives, and by 2030, reduce the global footprint of consumption in an equitable manner, halve global food waste, significantly reduce overconsumption and substantially reduce waste generation, in order for all people to live well in harmony with Mother Earth.

TARGET 17

Establish, strengthen capacity for, and implement in all countries in biosafety measures as set out in Article 8(g) of the Convention on Biological Diversity and measures for the handling of biotechnology and distribution of its benefits as set out in Article 19 of the Convention.

TARGET 18

Identify by 2025, and eliminate, phase out or reform incentives, including subsidies harmful for biodiversity, in a proportionate, just, fair, effective and equitable way, while substantially and progressively reducing them by at least500 billion United States dollars per year by 2030, starting with the most harmful incentives, and scale up positive incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

TARGET 19

Substantially and progressively increase the level of financial resources from all sources, in an effective, timely and easily accessible manner, including domestic, international, public and private resources, in accordance with Article 20 of the Convention, to implement national biodiversity strategies and action plans, by2030 mobilizing at least US$ 200 billion dollars per year, including by:

(a) Increasing total biodiversity related international financial resources from developed countries, including official development assistance, and from countries that voluntarily assume obligations of developed country Parties, to developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition, to at least US$ 20 billion per year by 2025, and to at least US$ 30 billion per year by 2030;

(b) Significantly increasing domestic resource mobilization, facilitated by the preparation and implementation of national biodiversity finance plans or similar instruments according to national needs, priorities and circumstances

(c) Leveraging private finance, promoting blended finance, implementing strategies for raising new and additional resources, and encouraging the private sector to invest in biodiversity, including through impact funds and other instruments;

(d) Stimulating innovative schemes such as payment for ecosystem services, green bonds, biodiversity offsets and credits, benefit-sharing mechanisms, with environmental and social safeguards

(e) Optimizing co-benefits and synergies of finance targeting the biodiversity and climate crises,

(f) Enhancing the role of collective actions, including by indigenous peoples and local communities, Mother Earth centric actions1 and non-market-based approaches including community based natural resource management and civil society cooperation and solidarity aimed at the conservation of biodiversity

(g) Enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency and transparency of resource provision and use;

TARGET 20

Strengthen capacity-building and development, access to and transfer of technology, and promote development of and access to innovation and technical and scientific cooperation, including through South- South, North-South and triangular cooperation, to meet the needs for effective implementation, particularly in developing countries, fostering joint technology development and joint scientific research programmes for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and strengthening scientific research and monitoring capacities, commensurate with the ambition of the goals and targets of the framework.

TARGET 21

Ensure that the best available data, information and knowledge, are accessible to decision makers, practitioners and the public to guide effective and equitable governance, integrated and participatory management of biodiversity, and to strengthen communication, awareness-raising, education, monitoring, research and knowledge management and, also in this context, traditional knowledge, innovations, practices and technologies of indigenous peoples and local communities should only be accessed with their free, prior and informed consent, in accordance with national legislation.

TARGET 22

Ensure the full, equitable, inclusive, effective and gender-responsive representation and participation in decision-making, and access to justice and information related to biodiversity by indigenous peoples and local communities, respecting their cultures and their rights over lands, territories, resources, and traditional knowledge, as well as by women and girls, children and youth, and persons with disabilities and ensure the full protection of environmental human rights defenders.

TARGET 23

Ensure gender equality in the implementation of the framework through a gender-responsive approach where all women and girls have equal opportunity and capacity to contribute to the three objectives of the Convention, including by recognizing their equal rights and access to land and natural resources and their full, equitable, meaningful and informed participation and leadership at all levels of action, engagement, policy and decision-making related to biodiversity.

UN FAO 2022 Report on Food Security and Nutrition

The key messages of the UN FAO 2022 Report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World were:

Despite hopes that the world would emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and food security would begin to improve, world hunger rose further in 2021. The increase in global hunger in 2021 reflects exacerbated inequalities across and within countries due to an unequal pattern of economic recovery among countries and unrecovered income losses among those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

After remaining relatively unchanged since 2015, the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) jumped from 8.0 to 9.3 percent from 2019 to 2020 and rose at a slower pace in 2021 to 9.8 percent. Between 702 and 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021. The number has grown by about 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic – 103 million more people between 2019 and 2020 and 46 million more in 2021.

Projections are that nearly 670 million people will still be facing hunger in 2030 – 8 percent of the world population, which is the same as in 2015 when the 2030 Agenda was launched.

After increasing sharply in 2020, the global prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity remained mostly unchanged in 2021, but severe food insecurity rose higher, reflecting a deteriorating situation for people already facing serious hardships. Around 2.3 billion people in the world were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021, and 11.7 percent of the global population faced food insecurity at severe levels.

Globally in 2020, an estimated 22 percent of children under five years of age were stunted, 6.7 percent were wasted, and 5.7 percent were overweight. Children in rural settings and poorer households, whose mothers received no formal education, were more vulnerable to stunting and wasting. Children in urban areas and wealthier households were at higher risk of overweight.

Steady progress has been made on exclusive breastfeeding, with 43.8 percent of infants under six months of age exclusively breastfed worldwide in 2020, up from 37.1 percent in 2012, but improvement must be accelerated to meet the 2030 target. Infants residing in rural areas, in poorer households, who are female and whose mothers received no formal education are more likely to be breastfed.

Globally in 2019, nearly one in three women aged 15 to 49 years (571 million) were affected by anaemia, with no progress since 2012. Anaemia affects more women in rural settings, in poorer households and who have received no formal education.

Almost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020. This is 112 million more than in 2019, reflecting the inflation in consumer food prices stemming from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place to contain it.

The recent setbacks indicate that policies are no longer delivering increasing marginal returns in reducing hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms. Governments where the economy is fragile are also facing fiscal constraints to transform agrifood systems. This is the time for governments to start examining their current support to food and agriculture.

Worldwide support to food and agriculture accounted for almost USD 630 billion per year on average over 2013–2018. The lion share of it is targeted to farmers individually, through trade and market policies and fiscal subsidies largely tied to production or unconstrained use of variable production inputs. Not only is much of this support market-distorting, but it is not reaching many farmers, hurts the environment and does not promote the production of nutritious foods.

Support to agricultural production largely concentrates on staple foods, dairy and other animal source protein-rich foods, especially in high- and upper-middle-income countries. Rice, sugar and meats of various types are the foods most incentivized worldwide, while fruits and vegetables are less supported overall, or even penalized in some low-income countries.

Trade and market interventions can act as trade barriers for nutritious foods undermining the availability and affordability of healthy diets. In many countries, fiscal subsidies have increased the availability and reduced the price of staple foods and their derivatives, discouraging and making relatively more expensive the consumption of unsubsidized or less subsidized commodities such as fruits, vegetables and pulses.

Done smartly and informed by evidence, involving all stakeholders, keeping in mind countries’ political economies and institutional capabilities, and considering commitments and flexibilities under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, repurposing existing public support can help increase the availability of nutritious foods to the consumer. It can contribute to making healthy diets less costly and more affordable all over the world, a necessary – albeit insufficient – condition for healthy diets to be consumed.

When repurposing public support to make healthy diets less costly, policymakers have to avoid potential inequality trade-offs that may emerge if farmers are not in a position to specialize in the production of nutritious foods due to resource constraints. To avoid trade-offs in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, low-emission intensity technologies have to be adopted to produce nutritious foods, and overproduction and overconsumption of emission-intensive commodities need to be reduced in high- and upper-middle-income countries in line with dietary guidelines.

In low-income countries but also in some lower-middle-income countries where agriculture is key for the economy, jobs and livelihoods, governments need to increase and prioritize expenditure for the provision of services that support food and agriculture more collectively. This is crucial to bridge productivity gaps in the production of nutritious foods and enable income generation to improve the affordability of healthy diets, although it will require significant development financing.

Repurposing current public support to food and agriculture will not be enough alone. Healthy food environments and empowering consumers to choose healthy diets must be promoted through complementing agrifood systems policies. Social protection and health system policies will be needed to mitigate unintended consequences of repurposing support on the most vulnerable, particularly women and children. Environmental, health, transportation and energy systems policies will be needed to enhance the positive outcomes of repurposing support in the realms of efficiency, equality, nutrition, health, climate mitigation and the environment.

The success of repurposing efforts will also be influenced by the political and social context, governance, (im)balances of power, and differences in interests, ideas and influence of stakeholders. Given the diversity of each country’s context, repurposing efforts will need strong institutions on a local, national and global level, as well as engaging and incentivizing stakeholders from the public sector, the private sector and international organizations.

2022 UNESCO State of Ocean Report

In August 2022, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO released the pilot edition of the State of the Ocean Report 2022. The report is structured around the initial challenges of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, 2021–2030.

The Report presented the following challenges with regard to the ocean:

• Understand and beat marine pollution
• Protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity
• Develop a sustainable and equitable ocean economy
• Unlock ocean-based solutions to climate change
• Increase community resilience to ocean hazards
• Expand the Global Ocean Observing System and create a digital representation of the ocean
• Skills, knowledge and technology for all
• Change humanity's relationship with the ocean to understand our influence on the ocean and its influence on us.

The attempt to create the Report led to a ‘moment of truth’: Although society is aware in principle of what is happening in the ocean, and what should be done about it, the quantitative description of the ocean is drastically incomplete and, as a result, current knowledge is insufficient to effectively inform solutions to the ocean issues that humanity is now facing

Therefore, the way forward is to:

• broadly communicate the findings on the continued lack of quantitative knowledge about the ocean;
• continue to promote and develop the UN Ocean Decade as the prime platform to transform ocean science, so that it can effectively contribute to sustainable development;
• act to create a theoretical basis for sustainable ocean planning and management, within and beyond areas of national jurisdiction, focusing on ocean economy, climate and biodiversity, and develop corresponding implementation plans in consultation with key stakeholders; and
• strengthen the ocean science-policy interface.