2019

Round 1: General Knowledge

Question 1
Name the 9 countries with four-letter English
names, according to the UN's official list of member
states.

(9)
Question 2
Which band forced Twitter to remove one of Donald
Trump's tweets in October for copyright
infringement?

(1)
Question 3
In 1999, Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett were both
nominated at the Oscars for playing the same
historical figure in different films. Who was the
historical figure?

(1)
Question 4
What do JRR Tolkein's initials stand for?

(3)
Question 5
Which two teams contested the final of the Cricket
World Cup in July? And how many runs did both teams
score in their "Super Over"?

(3)
Question 6
In October, Lonely Planet named England as the
second-best tourist destination in the world for
2020. Name the country that came first.

(1)
Question 7
Name the UK's last seven secretaries of state for foreign
and Commonwealth affairs.

(7)
Question 8
What was the name of Apollo XI's command module
that was being piloted by Michael Collins when Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were on the surface of
the moon?

(1)
Question 9
Which two singers spent 8 weeks together at Number
One in the UK singles charts this summer?

(2)
Question 10
Which two authors shared the Booker Prize for
Fiction this year?

(2)
Round 1 Answers
Question 1
Name the 9 countries with four-letter English
names, according to the UN's official list of member
states.

Answers: Chad, Togo, Mali, Peru, Cuba, Oman, Iraq,

Iran, Fiji
Question 2
Which band forced Twitter to remove one of Donald
Trump's tweets in October for copyright
infringement?

Answer: Nickleback
Question 3
In 1999, Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett were both
nominated at the Oscars for playing the same
historical figure in different films. Who was the
historical figure?

Answer: Queen Elizabeth I

Question 4
What do JRR Tolkein's initials stand for?

Answer: John Ronald Reuel

Question 5
Which two teams contested the final of the Cricket
World Cup in July? And how many runs did both teams
score in their "Super Over"?

Answer: England and New Zealand. And 15 runs.

Question 6
In October, Lonely Planet named England as the
second-best tourist destination in the world for
2020. Name the country that came first.

Answer: Bhutan
Question 7
Name the UK's last seven secretaries of state for foreign
and Commonwealth affairs.

Answer: Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt, Boris Johnson,

Philip Hammond, William Hague, David Miliband,
Margaret Beckett
Question 8
What was the name of Apollo XI's command module
that was being piloted by Michael Collins when Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were on the surface of
the moon?
Answer: Columbia
Question 9
Which two singers spent 8 weeks together at Number
One in the UK singles charts this summer?

Answer: Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber ("I Don't Care")

Question 10
Which two authors shared the Booker Prize for
Fiction this year?

Answer: Bernardine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood

Round 2: Policy
Question 1
According to the BP Statistical Review, which five
countries had the highest territorial CO2 emissions
from fossil fuels in 2018?

(5)
Question 2
Which UK government minister currently has formal
responsibility for "climate science and innovation"?

(1)
Question 3
Where was COP1 held in 1995?

(1)
Question 4
What year will the Labour party commit the UK to
reaching net-zero carbon emissions, if it wins power?

(1)
Question 5
In UNFCCC jargon, what does "MRV" stand for?

(1)
Question 6
What does Extinction Rebellion want to "meet for a
minimum of 10 weekends over the course of 6
months"?

(1)
Question 7
Which UK political party passed a "climate
emergency" motion at its conference this year
promising to create a new "Department for Climate
and Natural Resources", if it wins power?

(1)
Question 8
Which country has a ministry for "environment,
nature conservation and nuclear safety"?

(1)
Question 9
Which seven UK politicians have mentioned "climate
change" the most in Parliament, according to
Hansard?

(7)
Question 10
Who said this in 2012 in support of fracking for shale
gas: "Wave power, solar power, biomass – their
collective oomph wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice
pudding…We should get fracking right away."

(1)
Round 2 Answers
Question 1
According to the BP Statistical Review, which five
countries had the highest territorial CO2 emissions
from fossil fuels in 2018?

Answer: China, US, India, the Russian Federation and

Japan.
Question 2
Which UK government minister currently has formal
responsibility for "climate science and innovation"?

Answer: Lord Duncan of Springbank

Question 3
Where was COP1 held in 1995?

Answer: Berlin, Germany

Question 4
What year will the Labour party commit the UK to
reaching net-zero carbon emissions, if it wins power?

Answer: 2030
Question 5
In UNFCCC jargon, what does "MRV" stand for?

Answer: Measurable, reportable and verifiable

Question 6
What does Extinction Rebellion want to "meet for a
minimum of 10 weekends over the course of 6
months"?

Answer: Citizens' assembly

Question 7
Which UK political party passed a "climate
emergency" motion at its conference this year
promising to create a new "Department for Climate
and Natural Resources", if it wins power?

Answer: Liberal Democrats

Question 8
Which country has a ministry for "environment,
nature conservation and nuclear safety"?

Answer: Germany
Question 9
Which seven UK politicians have mentioned "climate
change" the most in Parliament, according to
Hansard?

Answer: (in order) Lord Rooker, Lord Teverson,

Ed Davey, Ed Miliband, Lord Barker, Barry Gardiner
and Lord Deben
Question 10
Who said this in 2012 in support of fracking for shale
gas: "Wave power, solar power, biomass – their
collective oomph wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice
pudding…We should get fracking right away."
Answer: Boris Johnson
Round 3: Science
Question 1
What does the IPCC acronym "SROCC" stand for?

(1)
Question 2
Name the 2017 Gerard Butler movie in which a
network of satellites designed to control the global
climate starts to attack Earth.

(1)
Question 3
In the periodic table, name the six alkali metals.

(6)
Question 4
Carl-Gustaf Rossby was the first meteorologist to
feature on the front cover of which magazine?

(1)
Question 5
What is a "Medicane"?

(1)
Question 6
Name the body of water in the North Pacific that
separates the US from Asia.

(1)
Question 7
Which five nations are represented by the most
authors on the IPCC's sixth assessment report?

(5)
Question 8
Japanese meteorologist Wasaburo Ooishi discovered
the jet stream, but his 1926 paper was largely ignored
for decades. In what language was it written?

(1)
Question 9
A study published this year found that the population
of which marine creature declined by 12% in Shark
Bay in Australia after a marine heatwave in 2011?

(1)
Question 10
After nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%), what are the
third and fourth most common gases in the Earth's
atmosphere (excluding water vapour)?

(2)
Round 3 Answers
Question 1
What does the IPCC acronym "SROCC" stand for?

Answer: Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere

in a Changing Climate
Question 2
Name the 2017 Gerard Butler movie in which a
network of satellites designed to control the global
climate starts to attack Earth.

Answer: Geostorm
Question 3
In the periodic table, name the six alkali metals.

Answer: Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium,

Caesium and Francium
Question 4
Carl-Gustaf Rossby was the first meteorologist to
feature on the front cover of which magazine?

Answer: Time (in 1956)

Question 5
What is “Medicane”?

Answer: A Mediterranean hurricane

(specifically: a hurricane-like storm that forms over
the Mediterranean Sea)
Question 6
Name the body of water in the North Pacific that
separates the US from Asia.

Answer: Bering Strait

Question 7
Which five nations are represented by the most
authors on the IPCC's sixth assessment report?

Answer: US, UK, Germany, Australia and China

Question 8
Japanese meteorologist Wasaburo Ooishi discovered
the jet stream, but his 1926 paper was largely ignored
for decades. In what language was it written?

Answer: Esperanto
Question 9
A study published this year found that the population
of which marine creature declined by 12% in Shark
Bay in Australia after a marine heatwave in 2011?

Answer: Bottlenose dolphin

Question 10
After nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%), what are the
third and fourth most common gases in the Earth's
atmosphere (excluding water vapour)?

Answer: Argon (0.9%) and carbon dioxide (0.04%)

Round 4: Special Guest questions
Question 1 – Emily Gosden, energy editor of
The Times
"Greta Thunberg sailed the Atlantic this summer to
attend the UN Climate Action Summit in New York
and the now-relocated COP25 in Chile. What was the
name of the yacht she sailed on?"

(1)
Question 2 – Prof Ed Hawkins, professor of climate
science at the University of Reading
Who was the first scientist to discover that the
world's land areas were warming? And when was the
paper published?

(2)
Question 3 – Kwasi Kwarteng, minister of state for
business, energy and clean growth
Who signed the legislation committing the UK to the
2050 net-zero target?

(1)
Question 4 – Tasneem Essop, executive director
of Climate Action Network (CAN) International
Name the four UNFCCC negotiating blocs that
include South Africa as a member state.

(4)
Question 5 – Prof Katharine Hayhoe, director of
the Texas Tech University Climate Science Center
What is the name of the last geologic period — not
including the current one — where atmospheric CO2
concentrations were above 400 parts per million?

(1)
Round 4 Answers
Question 1 – Emily Gosden, energy editor of
The Times
"Greta Thunberg sailed the Atlantic this summer to
attend the UN Climate Action Summit in New York
and the now-relocated COP25 in Chile. What was the
name of the yacht she sailed on?"

Answer: Malizia II
Question 2 – Prof Ed Hawkins, professor of climate
science at the University of Reading
Who was first scientist to discover that the world's
land areas were warming? And when was the paper
published?

Answer: Guy Callendar. 1938

Question 3 – Kwasi Kwarteng, minister of state for
business, energy and clean growth
Who signed the legislation committing the UK to the
2050 net-zero target?

Answer: Chris Skidmore

Question 4 – Tasneem Essop, executive director
of Climate Action Network (CAN) International
Name the four UNFCCC negotiating blocs that
include South Africa as a member state.

Answer: BASIC, G77+China, African Group and

Coalition for Rainforest Nations
Question 5 – Prof Katharine Hayhoe, director of
the Texas Tech University Climate Science Center
What is the name of the last geologic period — not
including the current one — where atmospheric CO2
concentrations were above 400 parts per million?

Answer: Pliocene (3-5m years ago)

(1)
Round 5 Answers
Round 5: Missing-word journal titles
1. Pastoral yak rearing system is changing with change in climate: an exploration
of North Sikkimin Eastern Himalaya (Climatic Change)
2. Production of biodiesel from waste shark liver oil for biofuel applications
(Renewable Energy)
3. Assessment of cloudiness for use in environmental marine research
(International Journal of Remote Sensing )
4. The effects of the Paris climate agreement on stock markets: evidence from the
German stock market (Applied Economics)
5. Topic modeling and sentiment analysis of global climate change tweets (Social
Network Analysis and Mining)
6. State-of-the-art global models underestimate impacts from climate extremes
(Nature Communications)
7. European mushroom assemblages are darker in cold climates (Nature
Communications)
8. Climate change will decrease the range size of snake species under negligible
protection in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest hotspot (Scientific Reports)
9. Climate and landscape changes as driving forces for future range shift in
southern populations of the European badger (Scientific Reports)
10. More frequent extreme climate events stabilize reindeer population
dynamics (Nature Communications)
11. Essay on climate apocalypse and a carbon tax (The Electricity Journal)
12. Pathways to climate-neutral shipping: A Danish case study (Energy)
13. Why should urban heat island researchers study history? (Urban Climate)
14. Impact of climate change on European winter and summer flood losses
(Advances in Water Resources)
15. Cost-effective opportunities for climate change mitigation in Indian
agriculture (Science of the Total Environment)
16. Nuclear frames in the Irish media: Implications for conversations on nuclear
power generation in the age of climate change (Progress in Nuclear Energy)
17. Range expansion of an already widespread bee under climate change (Global
Ecology and Conservation)
18. Climate change and maritime security (Marine Policy)
19. Foreign, domestic, and cultural factors in climate change reporting: Swedish
media’s coverage of wildfires in three continents (Environmental Communication)
20. The impact of climate change on fertility (Environmental Research Letters)
Round 6 Answers
Round 6: Match the country to its coal use over time
A. Australia
B. Poland
C. Germany
D. US
E. Vietnam
F. Japan
G. UK
H. France
I. Italy
J. China
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