Daily Current Affairs UPSC: News Based MCQs Quiz | 4th October 2025

Answer: (B) 2 only

Detailed Explanation

• The Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) was a global initiative under the UN Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) that supported banks in aligning their lending and investment portfolios with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
• Launched in April 2021, the alliance provided guidelines and a platform for members to set and disclose climate targets.
• Rise and collapse
• Expansion (2021–2023): Membership grew rapidly from 43 founding banks to a peak of nearly 150 institutions, representing over 40% of global banking assets.
• Accelerated exodus (late 2024–2025): The alliance lost many key members, primarily due to political backlash and legal concerns regarding climate commitments, particularly in the U. S. and other markets.
• Vote to dissolve (August 2025): The NZBA paused its activities and initiated a member vote on its future.
• Cessation of operations (October 2025): The vote resulted in the immediate end of the NZBA as a member-based alliance. However, the organization’s guidance and framework will continue to be available as a resource for individual banks.
• Core Principles
• When it was active, the NZBA’s core principles required member banks to:
• Transition portfolios: Align lending and investment portfolios to achieve net-zero by 2050 or sooner, in line with the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global warming to 1. 5°C.
• Set and disclose targets: Set interim 2030 targets and report on their progress annually, with targets focusing on the most greenhouse gas-intensive sectors first.
• Engage with clients: Work with clients to promote the real-economy transition to a low-carbon future, rather than just exiting high-emissions sectors.
• Follow science-based guidelines: Adopt guidelines developed by UNEP FI for setting climate targets, which were updated in early 2024 to include facilitated capital markets emissions.
• Reasons For Collapse
• Several factors contributed to the end of the NZBA as a membership alliance:
• Political pressure: Anti-ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) political sentiment in the U. S. led some banks to fear legal and regulatory repercussions for participating in collective climate commitments.
• Governance concerns: Members expressed concern that the alliance was becoming too rigid and prescriptive, particularly regarding its target-setting requirements.
• Voluntary fragility: As a voluntary initiative with weak enforcement, the NZBA proved vulnerable to pressure. Banks could withdraw at any time without penalty, which they began to do as external scrutiny increased.
• Operational autonomy: Some banks chose to pursue climate strategies independently, arguing that they needed greater flexibility and control over their own commitments

Answer: (A) 1 only

Detailed Explanation

• Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast, and Yemen to the south.
• The Red Sea is to its west, and the Persian Gulf lies to its northeast.

Answer: (A) Only one

Detailed Explanation

Polar geoengineering projects

The five methods in question are:

1. Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI): deliberately releasing aerosols into the earth’s atmosphere to reflect sunlight and cool the earth’s surface
2. Sea curtains/sea walls: blocking warm ocean water from reaching the ice sheets in polar regions using large buoyant structures attached to the seabed
3. Sea ice management: scattering glass microbeads over sea ice to boost their reflectivity and artificially thicken them
4. Basal water removal: reducing ice loss by removing subglacial water from under glaciers to slow the movement of ice sheets and decelerate sea level rise
5. Ocean fertilisation: drawing more CO2 from the atmosphere into the ocean by adding nutrients like iron to polar oceans to stimulate phytoplankton growth.

Answer: (A) 1 only

Detailed Explanation

• Founded in 2004, the Valdai Discussion Club is named after Lake Valdai, located close to Veliky Novgorod, where the Club’s first meeting took place.
• Its intellectual potential is highly regarded in Russia and abroad: over 9,000 academics, policymakers, and public figures have participated in the Club’s activities.
• The Valdai Club’s regional conferences – focused on Asia, Africa, Central Asia, Middle East, Russia-China relations, and others – have drawn considerable attention from the international expert community. The Club holds sessions at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
• In 2024, the Club launched “Valdai – New Generation” project building a community of young scholars dedicated to addressing the world’s most pressing political and economic challenges.
• Lake Valdayskoye, or Lake Valdai is a freshwater lake located in the center of Valdaysky District of Novgorod Oblast in Russia in the middle of the Valdai Hills. One of the largest lakes in Novgorod Oblast, it has a surface area of 19. 7 km², and the area of its basin is 97. 2 km².

Answer: (C) Kaliningrad

Detailed Explanation

• Poland shares land borders with seven countries: Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and Lithuania and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to the northeast. Additionally, Poland’s northern border lies along the Baltic Sea.