The Carbon Brief Quiz 2021
On Monday 8 November, Carbon Brief hosted its seventh annual quiz. The event was held at a brewery in Glasgow to coincide with COP26 – welcoming around 150 journalists, scientists and climate experts in person, with hundreds more playing online.
The Carbon Brief quiz usually takes place in a bar in London, but moved to Zoom last year due to Covid-19 restrictions. This year saw the Carbon Brief’s first fully hybrid event, in which both online and in-person teams were welcome – a format that Carbon Brief plans to repeat in the future.
Around 60 teams took part in the climate and energy-themed quiz, all hoping to win the coveted trophy claimed last year by “Twelve Spandrels”, which was formed of climate scientists and policy experts based at the University of East Anglia.
The teams competing this year, as in previous years, were made up of a wide range of people who, in one way or another, 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); Met Office; Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra); New Scientist; Committee on Climate Change; WWF-UK; Royal Meteorological Society; and teams from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Teams were tested with five rounds of questions – general knowledge, policy, science and two picture rounds. After two hours of competitive quizzing, this year’s winners were announced.
Congratulations to 'Tipping Timetables' from @uniofeastanglia – winners for the second year in a row 🏆!
— Carbon Brief (@CarbonBrief) November 8, 2021
Watch out for the full Q&A from this year's quiz on the Carbon Brief website soon 🤓.#CBQuiz #COP26 pic.twitter.com/Ic8ckSjJlW
For the second time in a row, the University of East Anglia (UEA) team – this year renamed as “Tipping Tables” – won the trophy.
We did it again! Team "Tipping Timetables" (@ueaenv, @UEA_Economics, @ClimateUEA_) have successfully defended their title at the 2021 @CarbonBrief quiz. Smashing result! @the_yushi @datamunki @jankaiser @_johnkenny @KJChalvatzis @nemvaughan @NowackPeer @TimOsbornClim @benwebber14 pic.twitter.com/nH4m79H96p
— Prof. Dr Jan Kaiser (@jankaiser) November 8, 2021
Last year, the same team won by a slim margin, after facing a team made up of Christian Aid, ECIU and Climate Analytics in a tense tie-breaker round.
However, the final table of results shows that there was no such rivalry this year, as the UEA team, captained by Prof Jan Kaiser, earned 98 out of 100 points. This allowed them to beat the second-place team, the “Grantham Geniuses” from Grantham Institute, by a whopping 11 points.
A bit of #CBQuiz post-match analysis for you:
— Robert McSweeney (@rtmcswee) November 9, 2021
First up, here's the full leaderboard (split into top and bottom half). Blue cells show the highest scorers for that round.@CarbonBrief pic.twitter.com/dLLGLbpqlb
Third place, with 83 points, was tied between three teams – “Greta Tomburke” from E3G, “Crazy Little Thing Called Net Zero” from Climate Analytics and “Spread the MESSAGE” by IIASA Energy, Climate and Environment.
The quiz result was later referenced on BBC News’ COP26 live blog.
Well, this is somewhat surreal…
— Leo Hickman (@LeoHickman) November 9, 2021
The @CarbonBrief quiz night – which took place last night in Glasgow and was won by @uniofeastanglia – has just been mentioned on the BBC News live-blog?!#CBQuiz https://t.co/ixtJHHU8Sj pic.twitter.com/5WTZsZt5HD
You can read through all the questions and answers in this PDF document. (We also tweeted throughout the event using the #CBQuiz hashtag.)
The picture round can be viewed in more detail here.
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 2022. If you would like to participate in next year’s quiz, please contact us in advance.
Thank you SO much @CarbonBrief for another fantastic quiz. True legends. #CBQuiz #COP26 pic.twitter.com/BpUxGHa5cI
— Kathy.Grenville (@KathyGrenville) November 8, 2021
Thank you @CarbonBrief for another excellent #CBQuiz!
— Climate Outreach (@ClimateOutreach) November 9, 2021
An ace team once again this year – #22 out of 60 teams, not bad : )@GeorgeMonbiot @catBrahic @ItsRachelDobbs @Tim_Nuthall @amiera_tales @JamieWClarke @climategeorge @dbasuray77 pic.twitter.com/Kt1XjBzxKF
We scienced the shit out of the #CBquiz #northernpowerhaus @jimmcquaid @PriestleyCentre pic.twitter.com/gkOfuANmgi
— Piers Forster (@piersforster) November 8, 2021
Greetings from Team IIASA in Vienna! 🇦🇹 #CBQuiz #SpreadTheMESSAGE pic.twitter.com/iZDqUHv7zd
— Chris Smith 🇪🇺 (@chrisroadmap) November 8, 2021
Thanks for another great quiz @CarbonBrief, we had a very hyggelig evening!
— Ruth Mottram (@ruth_mottram) November 9, 2021
Team Denmark will be back next year! #CBQuiz https://t.co/1tohBPRNLZ pic.twitter.com/eusp6NHqFP
Cracking on with the #cbquiz celebrating midway through #cop26 with our amazing @CA_Latest team split between #glasgow and #berlin. Awesome feat of strength by @CarbonBrief to put this on with all the groups dialing in and in person! pic.twitter.com/hCuCBedKZa
— Matthew Gidden (@mattgidden) November 8, 2021
Hunkering down for @CarbonBrief quiz – feeling confident…@Will_McDowall @juliatomei1 @FrancescaLaros1 @st_pye @JamesJEPrice @JenCCronin @CaroleDalin @FejaLesniewska pic.twitter.com/jWkU6MsIh4
— Paul Drummond (@PDrummy) November 8, 2021
@UniofExeter climate group team for the @CarbonBrief quiz! #CBQuiz @Lambda_Joe @FlossieBrown_ @meteo_dan @nedcwilliams @AndreaROcean @amb_walsh @charliekirkwill pic.twitter.com/HaVCTRkeW8
— Jonathan Beverley (@JBeverley93) November 8, 2021
Below is a gallery of photographs taken by Carbon Brief staff during the event held at West on the Green in Glasgow on Monday 8 November.