Last Wednesday, Carbon Brief hosted its third annual quiz night at a bar in central London.
Twenty-five teams, featuring more than 200 people, took part in the climate and energy-themed evening, all hoping to win the coveted trophy claimed last year by Friends of the Earth.
The teams competing this year, as in previous years, were made up of a diverse group of people who, in one way or other, work on climate change or energy. The list included journalists, civil servants, climate campaigners, policy advisers, energy experts and scientists. Organisations represented included the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Committee on Climate Change, Green Alliance, 10:10, Sandbag, Carbon Trust, New Economics Foundation, RenewableUK and four teams from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). A teams from the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen also took part online.
After more than two hours of competitive quizzing, this year’s winners were announced. BEIS Science beat a highly competitive field scoring 70 points out of a possible 100. They won by a single point, thereby reclaiming the trophy they took home at the inaugural Carbon Brief quiz in 2015 when they were known as DECC Science.
The team was made up of eight scientists from BEIS, which last year, upon its formation, incorporated the former Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
Huge congrats to BEIS Science for winning the #CBQuiz 2017 – by a single point (as they did in 2015, too!) @CarbonBrief pic.twitter.com/XzQ3UGHyqS
— Leo Hickman (@LeoHickman) October 4, 2017
They beat into second place the team from Carbon Trust, who had been in the lead before the final round of questions. Third place was shared by the teams from the IPCC/Imperial and European Climate Foundation.
Here are the final results from #CBQuiz 2017 pic.twitter.com/LH0J1XFbUT
— Carbon Brief (@CarbonBrief) October 4, 2017
A further breakdown of the results shows quite how close it was between the top-placed teams.
Our handy graphics help you track your team's performance through last night's #CBQuiz.
Winners BEIS Science only pipped Carbon Trust in the final round! pic.twitter.com/IBHMcWMBqT
— Carbon Brief (@CarbonBrief) October 5, 2017
Teams were tested with six rounds of questions – general knowledge, policy, science, two picture rounds and a round of question set by special guests. This year’s special guests were: Claire Perry, the new climate minister; Pilita Clark, until recently, the Financial Times’ environment correspondent; Prof Stephen Belcher, the Met Office’s chief scientist; Rachel Kyte, the UN secretary general’s special envoy on sustainable energy for all; and Zeke Hausfather, Carbon Brief’s US analyst, who could not be in the room as he’s based in San Francisco.
The full quiz can be viewed below, but here’s an interactive taster of 10 questions from the quiz. See how you get on.
Here are the two picture rounds. In the first, you need to match the right US state to the mix of its power generation capacity, using all the information available to guide you. In the second, you need to match the right country to the right climate.
Picture round 5
Picture round 6
You can read through all the questions and answers in this PDF document. (We also streamed the evening on Periscope and many participants tweeted throughout the event using the #CBQuiz hashtag.)
The Carbon Brief quiz has developed a reputation for being challenging, but it’s worth noting that there was only one question this year that not a single team was able to answer correctly.
Round 3: Question 5 of 10 (1 point) #CBQuiz pic.twitter.com/c25chIbeoD
— Carbon Brief (@CarbonBrief) October 4, 2017
Carbon Brief would like to thank all the teams who took part and we look forward to hosting the quiz again in October 2018. If you would like to participate in next year’s quiz, please contact us in advance.
And the winners of the Carbon Brief Quiz 2017 are @beisgovuk science. Congratulations! #CBQuiz pic.twitter.com/9CnNpc60Wm
— Carbon Brief (@CarbonBrief) October 4, 2017
