The Carbon Brief Quiz 2018

Last Wednesday, Carbon Brief hosted its fourth annual quiz night at a bar in central London.

Thirty-five teams, featuring more than 250 people, took part in the climate and energy-themed evening, all hoping to win the coveted trophy claimed last year (again) by “BEIS Science”, a team of scientists working at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

The teams competing this year, as in previous years, were made up of a wide range 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); Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra); Committee on Climate Change; Sandbag; Carbon Trust; RenewableUK; Friends of the Earth; European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; WWF-UK; ClientEarth; Department for Transport; and five teams from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Teams from the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen, the Priestley International Centre for Climate in Leeds and Verisk Maplecroft also took part online.

After more than two hours of competitive quizzing, this year’s winners were announced.

Congratulations to this year’s winners with 72 points: BEIS ICE! 👏🏼
Thanks all for joining us and see you next year! #CBQuiz pic.twitter.com/UZzOB6p5Hy

— Carbon Brief (@CarbonBrief) October 31, 2018

A team calling themselves “Trick or Heat”, which was formed of staff from BEIS’s “international climate and energy” (ICE) department, won by a single point. The team, captained by the recently retired ICE director Pete Betts, won 72 out of a possible 106 points. Verisk Maplecroft came second on 71 points and Carbon Trust came third with 70 points.

Finall scores for the Carbon Brief Quiz Night 2018 #CBQuiz pic.twitter.com/14FxCtzEMS

— Carbon Brief (@CarbonBrief) October 31, 2018

A further breakdown of the results shows quite how close it was between the top-placed teams, as well as which teams came top in individual rounds.

Final scores

Scores after each round

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 climate and energy minister; Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP; Emily Wilson, New Scientist editor; Dr Kate Marvel, Nasa climate scientist; and Chris Stark, Committee on Climate Change chief executive.

The full quiz can be viewed below, but here’s an interactive taster of 10 questions. See how you get on.

Here are the two picture rounds. In the first, you need to guess the missing word from the climate-related headline from the list of available words. In the second, you need to match the country to the right coal-capacity profile.

Round 5: Missing words

Round 6: Match the country to its coal fleet

You can read through all the questions and answers in this PDF document. (We also tweeted throughout the event using the #CBQuiz hashtag.)

The Carbon Brief quiz is known for being challenging. Robert McSweeney, Carbon Brief’s science editor, has analysed the answers and worked out, statistically, which was the toughest round and question.

For those who relish the detail, here are some stats about the toughest questions and rounds of this year’s #CBQuiz…

Thread 1/7

— Robert McSweeney (@rtmcswee) November 2, 2018

Carbon Brief would like to thank all the teams who took part and we look forward to hosting the quiz again in October 2019. If you would like to participate in next year’s quiz, please contact us in advance.