EPSO Administrator (AD) competitions — environment and climate profiles · European Union · European Personnel Selection Office
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersReducing the harm climate does: vulnerability assessment, climate-smart agriculture, early warning, contingency plans, insurance and national adaptation planning. Index insurance as a financial product is in the Agribusiness track; here it is one adaptation tool among many.
In the exams: ICAR AICE subject 71 Unit 3 (disasters, adaptation); UPSC CSE GS-III (disaster management); UGC NET Unit 10; GATE ES Section 8
How our questions for EPSO Administrator competitions spread across the units of Climate Adaptation, Climate-Smart Agriculture & Disaster Risk. Difficulty: 7 easy, 13 medium, 2 hard.
| Agromet advisories and early-warning systems | 3 | |
| Flood and cyclone preparedness in agriculture | 3 | |
| Vulnerability, exposure, hazard and risk | 2 | |
| Adaptive capacity and resilience frameworks | 2 | |
| Drought monitoring and drought management | 2 | |
| Risk transfer: crop insurance and index insurance as adaptation | 2 | |
| Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction | 2 | |
| National Adaptation Plans and community-based adaptation | 2 | |
| Maladaptation and limits to adaptation | 2 | |
| Stress-tolerant varieties, crop diversification and shifting calendars | 1 | |
| Water-smart and soil-smart practices | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Why can design standards based only on historical flood or drought records understate future risk?
B. Climate change makes hazard statistics non-stationary, so past return periods shorten
With a changing climate, the probability distribution of extremes shifts; a flood that was a 100-year event may become more frequent. Old gauges are not systematically biased high, return periods are statistical estimates, and standards are probability-based.
Further reading: See the manual sources: IPCC AR6 WGII, Sendai Framework, FAO CSA Sourcebook and the documents named in the explanation
What distinguishes anticipatory action (forecast-based financing) from conventional disaster response?
D. Pre-agreed funds flow when a forecast crosses a trigger, before the shock peaks
Anticipatory action ties pre-arranged finance to forecast triggers, so cash, feed or seed reaches people before impacts peak. Appeals, declarations and reconstruction are post-event mechanisms.
Further reading: See the manual sources: IPCC AR6 WGII, Sendai Framework, FAO CSA Sourcebook and the documents named in the explanation
How can heavily subsidised crop insurance become maladaptive?
D. Risk-blind premiums keep farmers growing unsuitable crops in unsuitable places
Risk-blind subsidies weaken the price signal that would encourage shifting crops or locations as risk rises, locking in exposure. Subsidies lower, not raise, prices; emissions and early warning are unrelated.
Further reading: See the manual sources: IPCC AR6 WGII, Sendai Framework, FAO CSA Sourcebook and the documents named in the explanation
Sendai target (c) aims to reduce direct disaster economic loss in relation to what?
B. Global gross domestic product
Target (c) is to reduce direct disaster economic loss in relation to global GDP by 2030. Mortality and affected people are normalised by population in the related indicators.
Further reading: See the manual sources: IPCC AR6 WGII, Sendai Framework, FAO CSA Sourcebook and the documents named in the explanation
Which groups did AR6 identify as already experiencing soft limits to adaptation?
D. Some small-scale farmers and households in low-lying coastal areas
AR6 reported soft limits for some smallholders and households along low-lying coasts. They are already occurring, not only projected.
Further reading: See the manual sources: IPCC AR6 WGII, Sendai Framework, FAO CSA Sourcebook and the documents named in the explanation
A coastal programme pays farmers to switch from rice to brackish shrimp ponds as salinity rises. What maladaptation risk should evaluators check?
C. Salinised neighbouring land and lost jobs for labourers who worked in rice
Shrimp farming can salinise adjacent fields and employs fewer people than rice, shifting vulnerability to others. Income effects vary, ponds do not raise sea level, and emissions are not eliminated.
Further reading: See the manual sources: IPCC AR6 WGII, Sendai Framework, FAO CSA Sourcebook and the documents named in the explanation
Ten here, 22 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to EPSO Administrator competitions in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
Free for ten days, then one subscription of US$10 a month. We would rather say so here than have you find it later.
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