Agenda 21, the global action plan for sustainable development, was adopted at which conference?

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.