End of course quiz

1. The Earth radiates heat into outer space by emitting what form of radiation?

2. If the Earth did not have any atmosphere what would its surface temperature be?

3. In global warming terms, how much more potent is methane than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas?

4. Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as a result of which process?

5. Microscopic floating plants in the oceans are called:

6. A gigatonne is equal to

7. In pre-industrial times the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been estimated to be:

8. Global warming over the years between 1951-80 and 2015-2019 has not been uniform over the globe. Which area has seen the largest temperature rise?

9. The acronym IPCC stands for

10. The acronym COP stands for:

11. At which COP meeting did the participants first agree that the global temperature rise should be limited to ‘well below 2 °C’?

12. In order to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C anthropogenic CO₂ emissions will need to fall by a factor of six by what date?

13. In 2022 fossil fuels made up what proportion of the world’s primary energy consumption:

14. In 2022 the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere was 420 parts per million and rising. To what level will it need to be limited by 2100 to keep the global average temperature rise to only 2°C above pre-industrial levels?

15. In the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero by 2050 scenario, what proportion of the world’s primary energy consumption is made up of fossil fuels in 2040?

16. How much of the world’s electricity did solar power provide in 2023?

17. How long are the blades on the turbines at the Ardrossan wind farm?

18. Hydrogen produced from different sources can be described by its ‘colour’. What is blue hydrogen?

19. Roughly how many people were displaced by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam hydroelectric dam in China?

20. According to the Norwegian company Equinor/Statoil, the Utsira saline aquifer formation is sufficiently large to absorb how many gigatonnes of CO₂?