Climate change revision often feels like trying to hold back the tide with a teaspoon. You learn the greenhouse effect, you memorise the gases, and then the exam asks something more human: What should we do about it? In IB ESS, that “what should we do” is where mitigation lives. And for the 2026 first assessment, mitigation is a high-yield topic because it forces you to think in trade-offs: carbon vs cost, speed vs fairness, local benefits vs global outcomes.
Mitigation is also comforting in a strange way. It’s the part of the syllabus that says: systems can change direction. But only if you can explain how--and evaluate whether a strategy actually works.
Quick checklist: what you must be able to do in IB ESS
Use this as your last-week-before-exams filter:
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Define mitigation clearly (reducing greenhouse gas emissions and/or increasing carbon sinks).
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Contrast mitigation with adaptation in one sentence (and give an example of each).
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Explain 4-6 major mitigation strategies with at least one strength and limitation each.
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Attach 2-3 named case studies you can reuse across questions.
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Evaluate strategies using environmental, economic, and social criteria.
If you want the syllabus-aligned pathway for this exact content, start with RevisionDojo’s IB ESS climate change unit hub.
Mitigation vs adaptation (the exam loves this)
In IB ESS, mitigation means tackling the causes of climate change by lowering net greenhouse gas emissions. Adaptation means managing the impacts (flood defences, drought planning, heat-health measures). The easiest way to protect marks is to define both before you start evaluating.
RevisionDojo’s 6.3 mitigation and adaptation notes are useful here because they group strategies by mechanism (reduce sources vs increase sinks), which helps you write cleaner comparisons in IB ESS essays.
The core IB ESS mitigation strategies you should know
Renewable energy transition
Moving electricity generation from fossil fuels to wind, solar, hydro, geothermal (and sometimes nuclear) is a classic IB ESS mitigation strategy.
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Strengths: large emissions reductions, improves air quality, creates new industries.
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Limitations: intermittency, storage needs, land use conflicts, upfront costs.
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Case study anchor: Germany’s Energiewende is a familiar example (policy-driven transition with mixed outcomes).
Energy efficiency and demand reduction
Efficiency is the quiet achiever of mitigation: insulation, efficient appliances, public transport, urban design, and industrial optimisation.
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Strengths: fast, often cost-effective, lowers demand across the whole system.
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Limitations: rebound effect (people use more when it’s cheaper), behaviour change, equity issues (who can afford retrofits?).
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Case study anchor: Japan’s Cool Biz is a neat “behaviour + policy” example.
For practice writing evaluation paragraphs, use RevisionDojo’s IB ESS Questionbank for climate change mitigation and aim to include one counterargument in every response.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS)
CCS captures CO₂ at the source (like power stations) and stores it underground. In IB ESS, it’s a great strategy to evaluate because it’s technically plausible but socially and economically complicated.
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Strengths: can reduce emissions from hard-to-abate sectors; allows transitional reductions.
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Limitations: expensive, energy-intensive, long-term storage risk, may delay switching away from fossil fuels.
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Case study anchor: Norway’s Sleipner project is widely cited.
Afforestation and reforestation (carbon sinks)
Tree planting and forest restoration increase carbon sequestration. It’s popular, visible, and often misunderstood on timescale.
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Strengths: co-benefits for biodiversity, soils, water regulation.
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Limitations: slow payoff, land competition with food production, vulnerability to fire/drought, risk of monocultures.
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Case study anchor: China’s “Green Great Wall” is commonly used.
Policy tools: carbon taxes and cap-and-trade
Policy is where IB ESS gets real: incentives, enforcement, and stakeholder conflict.
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Carbon tax: sets a price per tonne of CO₂ to discourage emissions.
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Cap-and-trade: sets a total emissions cap and allows trading permits (e.g., EU ETS).
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Strengths: flexible, economy-wide signals, can drive innovation.
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Limitations: political resistance, loopholes, uneven impacts on low-income households.
To make your policy evaluation sharper, connect it back to systems thinking (boundaries, feedbacks). RevisionDojo’s post on approaches to ESS thinking is a helpful mindset reset.
How to evaluate mitigation like an examiner (IB ESS marks live here)
When an IB ESS question says “evaluate” or “discuss,” listing strategies isn’t enough. Use a three-lens structure:
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Environmental effectiveness: How much does it reduce net emissions? What about leakage or unintended consequences?
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Economic feasibility: Upfront costs, long-term savings, who pays, and opportunity costs.
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Social and political acceptability: Equity, public trust, stakeholder conflict, and governance capacity.
A simple habit: end each paragraph with a judgement sentence (“Overall, this is most effective when…”) so your evaluation is visible.
If you need fast definition precision, RevisionDojo’s IB ESS glossary helps you keep wording exam-safe.
Exam practice plan (20 minutes, high impact)
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5 minutes: skim the 6.3 learn lesson and write 6 key terms from memory.
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10 minutes: do 2 Questionbank prompts and force yourself to include one strength and one limitation each.
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5 minutes: convert your weakest point into a mini deck using the 6.3 flashcards.
Conclusion: turn IB ESS mitigation into easy marks
Mitigation in IB ESS is really about leverage points: changing energy systems, reducing demand, redesigning incentives, and strengthening carbon sinks. Your exam edge comes from evaluation--not just what the strategy is, but who it helps, what it costs, and how fast it works.
If you want this to feel less overwhelming, build your revision around RevisionDojo: use the Study Notes for structure, the Flashcards for definitions, the Questionbank for exam phrasing, AI Chat for instant clarification, and Grading tools to stress-test your evaluation paragraphs. When you’re ready, assemble targeted practice using Mock Exams and Predicted Papers, and pull real examples from the Coursework Library or book time with Tutors to fix persistent weaknesses.
Mitigation strategies aren’t just a list to memorise. In IB ESS, they’re your chance to show you can think like a decision-maker inside a complex system--and score like one.
