“Ensuring adequate water supplies is a greater environmental challenge for the world than adapting to climate change.” Referring to examples, discuss this statement.

Coping with climate change may involve both taking measures to limit climate change as well as adopting strategies or policies designed to limit, adapt to, or ameliorate its impacts. These impacts affect almost all human activities from energy generation and usage to agriculture, industry, population migration, and the locations of settlement and transportation routes.

Climate change also directly affects future water supplies, but other reasons, such as over-abstraction of groundwater, and pollution of streams and groundwater, are also responsible for making the provision of adequate water a serious challenge for the future.

The phrase “adequate water supplies” can be seen as including both quantity and quality of water. The discussion could therefore extend to the concepts of water scarcity (physical and economic) and the factors affecting access to safe drinking water. Discussions of water supplies that focus unduly on the human/political dimensions of water provision are likely to be self-limiting since they are likely to stray away from the term “environmental challenge”.

Responses may also choose to focus more closely on the phrase “most significant environmental impact” and introduce some discussion of the significance of environmental challenges other than climate change and water supply, such as deforestation, soil degradation, desertification and environmental restoration. This is also an acceptable approach.

Discussion of non-environmental challenges (eg population growth) should not be credited except in cases where the response provides some justification suggesting how or why the challenge can be considered to relate to the environment.

At band D, responses are likely to describe a number of points about climate change and water supplies.

It is not necessary for the discussion of climate change and water supplies to be of equal depth for the award of full marks.

At band E, responses are likely to provide sufficient supporting details during the discussion to arrive at an evidence-based conclusion and to recognize either that some aspects of water provision are a subset of climate change or that we also face other significant environmental challenges besides water and climate change.

At band F, responses are likely to provide sufficient supporting details during the discussion to arrive at an evidence-based conclusion while recognizing, and attempting to analyse, the connections between water provision and climate change.

This was the least popular choice. Most candidates were able to discuss water scarcity and global climate change with examples; however, a significant number struggled to connect the two issues.