Environment & Ecology Quiz: Sustainable Development and the SDGs

The correct answer is D, A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2. Goal 10 is Reduced Inequalities, which is item 3; Goal 13 is Climate Action, which corresponds to climate change, item 1; Goal 14 is Life Below Water, item 4; and Goal 15 is Life on Land, item 2. A is wrong because it simply pairs the goals with the items in the order they are printed, which gives climate change to Goal 10 and reduced inequalities to Goal 14. B is wrong because it assigns life on land to Goal 10 and reduced inequalities to Goal 13, both displaced by one place. C is wrong because it matches Goal 10 and Goal 14 correctly but swaps the last two, giving life on land to Goal 13 and climate change to Goal 15. The safe way to answer such a question is to recall the block 13, 14, 15 as climate, water and land in that order.

The correct answer is A, Space Research. The 2030 Agenda has seventeen goals, and space research is not among them; the agenda is concerned with poverty, hunger, health, education, equality, water, energy, work, infrastructure, inequality, cities, consumption, climate, oceans, land, peace and partnerships. Space technology may help monitor several goals, through remote sensing of forests, crops and coasts, but it is a means and not a goal in itself. B is wrong as the answer because Quality Education is Goal 4, which aims at inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all. C is wrong as the answer because Gender Equality is Goal 5, which seeks to end discrimination against women and girls and empower them. D is wrong as the answer because Zero Hunger is Goal 2, which aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition while promoting sustainable agriculture.

The correct answer is B, Our Common Future. This was the 1987 report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway, and it is therefore also called the Brundtland Report; the sentence quoted in the question is taken from it word for word and is the standard definition used in every syllabus. A is wrong because Limits to Growth, published in 1972 for the Club of Rome, used computer modelling to argue that exponential growth would exhaust resources, but it gave no such definition. C is wrong because The Future We Want was the outcome document of the Rio plus twenty conference of 2012, which set in motion the drafting of the Sustainable Development Goals. D is wrong because Silent Spring, written by Rachel Carson in 1962, exposed the damage done by pesticides such as DDT and launched the modern environmental movement.

The correct answer is C, 2015. The resolution titled Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015, and the goals came into force from 1 January 2016, with 2030 as the deadline. A is wrong because 2000 is the year of the Millennium Summit, which produced the eight Millennium Development Goals that ran until 2015. B is wrong because 2012 is the year of the Rio plus twenty conference, whose outcome document The Future We Want only began the process of drafting the goals and set up a working group for it. D, 2016, is the closest distractor because it is the year the goals became operative, but adoption was in September 2015. Remember the pair: adopted in 2015, in force from 2016, deadline 2030.

The correct answer is B, 17 goals and 169 targets. The 2030 Agenda sets out seventeen goals, and the targets attached to them number 169 in all, progress on which is tracked through a separately agreed global indicator framework. A is wrong because eight goals and twenty-one targets describes the Millennium Development Goals of 2000 to 2015, which the Sustainable Development Goals replaced; mixing the two sets is the commonest error in this question. C is wrong on both counts, as there are seventeen goals, not fifteen. D is wrong because although the number of goals is right, the number of targets is not; 169 is the figure to remember, and candidates often confuse it with the count of indicators, which is a different and larger number. State plainly: seventeen goals, 169 targets, deadline 2030.

The correct answer is B, Climate Action. Goal 13 calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, and it expressly recognises the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as the primary international forum for negotiating the global response. A is wrong because Clean Water and Sanitation is Goal 6, which covers safe drinking water, sanitation and the management of water resources. C is wrong because Life Below Water is Goal 14, dealing with the conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources. D is wrong because Reduced Inequalities is Goal 10, which addresses inequality within and among countries. Candidates should memorise the environmental trio in order, Goal 13 for climate, Goal 14 for water and Goal 15 for land, because a matching question on these three is almost certain.

The correct answer is B, the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Formally the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, it adopted Agenda 21, a non-binding action plan for the twenty-first century covering every level from the global to the local, along with the Rio Declaration, a statement of forest principles, the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. A is wrong because the Stockholm Conference of 1972 was the first global environment conference and led to the United Nations Environment Programme and World Environment Day, but produced no Agenda 21. C is wrong because the Johannesburg Summit of 2002, known as Rio plus ten, adopted a plan for implementing Agenda 21 rather than Agenda 21 itself. D is wrong because the Kyoto Conference of 1997 produced the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions.

The correct answer is B, NITI Aayog. It has been given the task of coordinating and overseeing the goals in India, mapping each goal and target to central ministries and to centrally sponsored schemes, and it publishes the SDG India Index, which scores states and Union Territories on their performance. A is wrong because the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change handles environmental law, forests and the climate negotiations, which touch only some of the goals. C is wrong because statistical work on the National Indicator Framework is done by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, of which the Central Statistics Office is a part, but that is measurement rather than overall coordination. D is wrong because the National Green Tribunal, set up under the Act of 2010, is a specialised judicial body for environmental disputes, not a planning or monitoring agency.

The correct answer is A, eight. The Millennium Development Goals were agreed after the United Nations Millennium Summit of 2000 and ran until 2015, covering extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, HIV and other diseases, environmental sustainability and a global partnership for development. They were addressed mainly to developing countries and had a narrower social focus. B and C are wrong because no set of global development goals numbered ten or fifteen. D is wrong because seventeen is the number of Sustainable Development Goals that replaced them from 2016, which are universal and apply to developed and developing countries alike. The usual trap in this question is to attach the figure seventeen to the earlier set or the figure eight to the later one.

The correct answer is B, Clean Water and Sanitation. Goal 6 seeks to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, which includes safe and affordable drinking water, an end to open defecation, better water quality and the protection of water-related ecosystems; in India the Swachh Bharat Mission and the Jal Jeevan Mission are the programmes most often linked to it. A is wrong because Affordable and Clean Energy is Goal 7, which covers access to electricity and clean cooking fuel and the share of renewables. C is wrong because Decent Work and Economic Growth is Goal 8, dealing with employment, productivity and labour rights. D is wrong because Sustainable Cities and Communities is Goal 11, covering housing, transport, urban planning and heritage. The first seven goals are worth learning as a single sequence.

The correct answer is A, the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. It was the first global conference to treat the environment as a subject of international policy, and the United Nations Environment Programme was created later that year as a direct result, with its headquarters at Nairobi in Kenya; the opening day of the conference, 5 June, is observed every year as World Environment Day. B is wrong because the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 produced Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration and the two conventions on climate change and biological diversity. C is wrong because Rio plus twenty in 2012 produced The Future We Want and began work on the Sustainable Development Goals. D is wrong because the 2002 Johannesburg Summit adopted a plan of implementation for Agenda 21. Remember: Stockholm gave the Programme, Rio gave the Agenda.

The correct answer is C, Partnerships for the Goals. Goal 17 is the means-of-implementation goal: it covers finance, technology transfer, capacity building, trade, policy coherence, multi-stakeholder partnerships and the data and monitoring needed to track the other sixteen goals, and it is the reason the agenda is described as a global partnership rather than a list of national duties. A is wrong because Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions is Goal 16, which deals with violence, the rule of law, corruption and accountable institutions. B is wrong because Life on Land is Goal 15, covering forests, desertification, land degradation and biodiversity. D is wrong because Responsible Consumption and Production is Goal 12, which addresses resource efficiency, food waste and the life cycle management of chemicals and waste. The last goal is easy to remember as the one about working together.