Around 500 scientists, civil servants, journalists and climate experts took part in the 10th annual Carbon Brief quiz on Wednesday 6 November 2024.
This year’s quiz was hosted by Octopus Energy at its headquarters in central London.
In total, 55 teams participated – 30 teams in person and 25 teams joining via Zoom.
Competing teams reflected a wide range of climate change and energy professionals. The list included journalists, civil servants, climate campaigners, policy advisers, energy experts and scientists.
Organisations represented included: Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) in India; Systemiq/Energy Transition Commission; Oxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment; E3G; Wellcome Trust; CIFF; IIASA Aether; ECIU (Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit); Independent Diplomat; Max Planck Institute for Meteorology; C40 Cities; Ricardo; Oxford Sustainable Law Programme; Verisk Maplecroft; Leverhulme Wildfires Centre; Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI); Tracker Group; the ENDS Report; Grantham Institute at Imperial; World Resources Institute (WRI) Europe; University of Exeter; New Scientist; WWF; DESNZ; University of Strathclyde; Department for Transport; European Climate Foundation (ECF); Unearthed/Greenpeace; Meliore; HM Treasury; Skeptical Science; InfluenceMap; Octopus Energy; Met Office; Vrije Universiteit Brussel; UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources; Civil Service Climate and Environment Network (CSCEN); University of Surrey; Climate Outreach; UK Parliament; Aldersgate Group and Hirlam & Accord.
Teams were tested with five rounds of questions – general knowledge, policy, science and two picture rounds. (See the slideshow of the questions and answers below).
After two hours of playing, this year’s winners were announced.
Comprised of players from climate thinktank E3G, last year’s third place team, “Call Me Mabey”, won the coveted Carbon Brief trophy with a total score of 75 out of 100 available points.
In second place, with 62 points, were the “Green Scene Hooligans” from the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), who were playing remotely from India.
In third place, with 55 points, was “The Abate Escape”, representing players from Systemiq and the Energy Transition Commission, who accepted a trophy for the highest in-person score.
A third trophy was awarded to the Wellcome Trust for the best team name: “2(C) hot to handle”.
See the full leaderboard:
All the questions and answers from this year’s quiz can be found in this PDF document.
This year’s trickiest round was from the science round, with an average score of 6.2 out of 20 available points. Only 5% of teams knew that 2023’s most talked-about climate paper (based on its Altmetric score) was “Change in Antarctic ice shelf area from 2009 to 2019“, published in the Cryosphere in May 2023.
In the policy round, only 5% of teams correctly identified the DRC as the country with the lowest per-capita emissions out of the following four countries: Afghanistan, Chad, DRC and Haiti.
Finally, in general knowledge, only 7% of teams knew that the collective noun for goldfish is a “troubling”.
Carbon Brief would like to thank all the teams who took part and we look forward to hosting the quiz again in the autumn of 2025. If you would like to participate in next year’s quiz, please contact us in advance at [email protected].
Picture gallery by Carbon Brief
