GEOG20032 Global Climate Emergency Formative Assessment Brief 2025-26

GEOG20032 Formative Assessment Brief

Formative assessment opportunities

The formative assessment will support you in developing the introduction for your briefing report. This section focuses on the IPCC’s  Representative Concentration Pathways(RCPs)/Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), the differences between mitigation and adaptation strategies, and their importance in achieving the most favourable SSPs scenarios.

The formative assessment will help you refine your writing style for both press releases and briefing reports, with the aim of translating complex scientific concepts (such as RCPs/SSPs and mitigation/adaptation strategies) into accessible insights for non-scientists. These skills will be applied in the wider context of the Summative assessment which includes planning strategies for cities to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of the Global Climate Emergency.

Feedback on your assessment

Feedback will be provided within your assignment submission  and the marking grade matrix. Please read all comments carefully and use them to inform your summative assessment. 

Aims

In this formative task, you will produce a ~750 word press release aimed at a non-scientific audience. The purpose is to explain the IPCC’s  Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), what mitigation and adaptation strategies are, and to highlight the importance of achieving the best-case RCP/SSP scenarios, and stress the risks of a “business-as-usual” approach leading to worse-case RCPs/SSPs and future climate outcomes.

Your press release should:

• Clearly describe what the SSPs are, who developed them and why they matter.
• Explain the differences between mitigation and adaptation strategies, and show how these strategies contribute to achieving the best-case SSPs climate scenarios.
• Use key terminology such as adaptive capacity and vulnerability, ensuring you explain these terms for a general non-scientist audience.
• Communicate complex scientific ideas in a clear, concise, and engaging way that is accessible to non-specialists.

Feedback from this exercise will help you refine your writing style and prepare for your summative briefing report.

Specific Tasks

Further Assessment Guidance

Press Release Format:

Definition: A press release is a formal written communication directed at the media to announce something newsworthy.
Application: Press releases are used to generate media coverage and public awareness of important issues. They typically follow a standardised format including:

• Headline
• Dateline
• Introduction
• Body
• Relevant quotes (e.g. relevant ecologists, the IPCC, scientists, or policymakers)

Outcome: By following this format, your press release will clearly highlight the narrative around RCPs/SSPs and the importance of effective mitigation and adaptation strategies when tackling the impacts of the Global Climate Emergency and avoiding the worst-case RCPs/SSPs climate scenario

Suggested Reading

Suggested reading for the assessment can be found in the module’s NOW Learning Room Resources 

Module Outcomes Addressed

Knowledge and Understanding

• Outline the major stages of advance in understanding of The Global Climate Emergency.
• Demonstrate an awareness of the broader contextual issues influencing scientific research related to The Global Climate Emergency.
• Appraise ethical conflict, analyse political arguments, and apply reasoning to the resolution of The Global Climate Emergency problems. 

Skills, Qualities and Attributes

• Use communications and ICT effectively and appropriately to select, analyse, present, and communicate geographical and environmental information
• Communicate geographical and environmental ideas, principles and theories effectively and fluently by written, oral and visual means to a range of audiences