“Responding to climate change is more important than working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Refer to Paper 2 section C markbands (available under the "Your tests" tab > supplemental materials).

Reponses may tackle the question on a national, regional or global scale and may also consider the time frame needed to achieve change. An understanding of climate change and the UN SDGs should be evident in the response. Responses may have valid different perspectives on what constitutes “important”.

Possible applied themes (AO2) demonstrating knowledge and understanding (AO1):

• The potential consequences of climate change such as sea level change, extreme weather, changes to agriculture, spatial changes in biomes, changing hydrology’s [Unit 2:2]
• The impacts of climate change on people and places such as health hazards and migration [Unit 2:2]
• The possibilities to response to climate change
• Explanation of the purpose of the SDGs with a focus on some of the 17 goals such as gender equity, reducing hunger, and poverty. This may include an outline of how the SDGs operate to address issues of resource management [Unit 3:3]
• Explanation of the interaction between SDGs and climate change.

Responses may link the impacts of climate change on the potential outcome of some of the 17 goals. Alternatively, a response could see both as interlinked and show how both complement one another.

Good answers may be well structured (AO4) and may additionally offer a critical evaluation (AO3) which examines the statement in a way that shows understanding of the relative importance of climate change and SDGs. Another approach may comment on how the relative importance may vary between places. Some answers may examine the respective processes and possibilities of managing climate change and SDGs at different spatial and temporal scales.

For 5–6 marks
Expect some outline of climate change issues and/or the SDGs. The response is partial, narrow or lacks supporting evidence.

For 7–8 marks
Expect a well-structured account which includes:

• either a well-evidenced synthesis which links together several well-evidenced resource stewardship themes from the Guide
• or a critical conclusion (or ongoing evaluation) informed by geographical concepts and/or perspectives.

For 9–10 marks
Expect both traits.

Answers to this question were in the minority. Many candidates answered by giving factual information about climate change and attempted to address the question by examining the severity of its consequences. The relative importance of the impacts of climate change were addressed by looking at sea level rise, drought and extreme weather, sometimes with reference to countries at different levels of economic development. The impacts of climate change were frequently based on migration, but the better responses examined social and economic ramifications. Often this formed the majority of the essay with little attention paid to the SDGs. When development goals were discussed it was often as a developed list of their character and relative importance. This approach only partially addressed the question as there was little discussion of which element of the question was most important. There were some very good responses that realized that the two elements of the question were related and that by responding to one the other was addressed. These answers were usually structured around the SDGs and related issues such as poverty, hunger, health and inequality to aspects of climate change.