Question

If the world is to achieve net-zero emissions without hamstringing the economic prospects of billions of people, the rich world must help developing countries decarbonise as they grow. At the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, rich countries duly pledged to provide $100bn a year of public and private finance to poorer countries by 2020 to help them mitigate and adapt to climate change. The target is vaguely defined but is clearly being missed. Meeting it is not just a diplomatic challenge, but a technical one, given the difficulty of promoting investment in poor countries in which property rights can be insecure.
Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the passage?

• A. The energy transition is going to be expensive and catastrophic for countries across the globe.
• B. The Copenhagen Climate Summit target was vaguely defined as property rights are vaguely defined in poor countries.
• C. Developing countries need financial assistance to help achieve zero emission targets.
• D. The Copenhagen Summit was a failure as none of its targets were met.
• E. The world could achieve net zero emissions with coordination and cooperation.

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

Developing countries need financial assistance to help achieve zero emission targets.

Answer 2

Option A cannot be inferred. It goes beyond the scope of the passage; the passage is about developing countries achieving zero emission targets, not about all countries.

Option B cannot be inferred. It combines two statements and changes the intended meaning of the author. The author mentions that the Copenhagen summit had a vaguely defined target on emissions. It also mentions that meeting the target is a technical challenge as promoting investments in poorer countries is a problem due to insecure property rights.

Option D cannot be inferred; we do not know about the other targets of the summit and whether there were other targets.

Option E is out of scope of the passage.

Option C follows from the first few lines of the passage: 'If the world is to achieve net-zero emissions without hamstringing the economic prospects of billions of people, the rich world must help developing countries decarbonise as they grow.'

Hence, option C is the correct answer.