Direction (Qs.1 to 10): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. There are some blanks given in the passage based on which some questions are framed, and some words are highlighted as well to help you answer some of the questions.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s annual climate conference, COP 25, held in Madrid in December, ended on an _____ (A) note. (B) Despite two weeks of agreement (a) talks, delegates (b) from almost 200 countries were unable to reach an rigorous (c) on crucial issues such as the loss and damage resulting from climate change, financing for adaptation (d) of climate change, and carbon markets. As things stand, these decisions have been postponed till the COP 26 summit, which will be held in Glasgow in November 2020. Glasgow will also be important because many countries are expected to announce their new Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, for tackling the climate crisis domestically.

Navroz K. Dubash, who has been a lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s 5^th Assessment Report (AR5) in 2014 and a professor at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, is also a coordinating lead author of the IPCC AR6 report for 2022. Dubash believes that the war on climate change wouldn’t have been won or lost in Madrid. Rather, what’s more important is how individual economies legislate for a low-carbon future. (C) In an interview, Dubash talks about climate and environment concerns /in India amid a slowing economy, /the relevance and effectiveness of NDCs, /and his expect on climate action for 2020/. Edited excerpts: Madrid marked a _____ (D) end to 2019. What are the main bottlenecks to effective climate action? It was dismal for various structural reasons. It was dismal because, globally, in many countries, there isn’t a national appetite to address climate change. You have leaders who are de-emphasizing or actively pushing back like (Jair) Bolsanaro, (Donald) Trump, and in Australia, as well. That’s one reason why the broader conditions were not in place. (E) The second reason is that, I think, while there has been a very heartening(a), growing, political mobilization (b) by young people, particularly in Europe, it is also accompanied(c) by the fact that the world is going through very distress (d) times in other ways. The rise of nationalism, identity politics—all of these things are also crowding the space. For example, who wants to talk about climate change right now in India, given what we are going through with the discussion and unrest over the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and the protests associated with it? (F) So, the centre of gravity of the climate action needs to be at the national level, _____. You’ve written elsewhere that it is impossible for India to grow first and clean up later, and that this needs to be tackled simultaneously. This is a unique challenge. I don’t think India has a choice except to find a way to grow in a way that’s clean. We haven’t fully realized that we don’t have a choice. (G) I don’t think that India is unskilled (a) a middle-income trap (b) anytimesoon because we are not creating (c) many jobs and we have a large facing (d) labour force. (H) But we could end up in a middle-income environment trap, /wherein the conditions for our economy that rest on natural resources, the ability of our transport networks to move things around, /the ability of our economy to have access to raw material, /the able to attract senior managers who are willing to brave the highest levels of pollution in the world—all of these things actually will have a material effect on growth/. I think the environment could easily, if it hasn’t already, become a constraint on our growth. Given the current GDP growth rates and the severely slowing economy, will climate and environmental concerns take a backseat? People mobilize around climate, as you see with the Extinction Rebellion. (I) But, when you have to get a political system moving, _____. You set a transport policy, an energy policy, a land-use policy, you set an urban policy and you think about how all of those things could be made the most climate-friendly. (J) If you think (a) about it in that way, it need not take a back seat, because even in an economic slowdown (b), people care about the pertains (c) of their cities and it shape (d) to the slowdown. If you are a sensible public planner, you’d worry about such things, including from a growth point of view.