By English Test Coach · Updated
Task 2 · Three original environmental questions
IELTS environment essay topics: explain how a proposal would help
“It is better for the environment” names a broad aim, not a developed argument. Identify the problem, explain how a particular action could change it and consider the cost or condition that affects your judgement.
These original English Test Coach questions and hypothetical teaching examples connect to complete annotated essays. They are not exam predictions, recalled questions or examiner-scored scripts. The policies are proposals within practice questions.
Read the action, actor and trade-off
Reducing household food waste
Households sometimes throw away food that could still be eaten. What are the main reasons for this, and what could households and food retailers do to reduce the waste?
Planning focus: Match causes to actions by households and retailers.
Explain why edible food is discarded, then give responses from both groups named in the question. A paragraph about government recycling rules alone would not answer what households and food retailers could do.
Problems, causes and solutions: match the response to the question →
Repairable everyday products
Manufacturers should be required to make everyday products easy to repair, even if this raises their purchase price. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Planning focus: Weigh a requirement against its purchase-price cost.
Judge a proposal to make everyday products easier to repair. The prompt explicitly accepts that the purchase price may rise, so explain whether the benefit justifies that trade-off rather than assuming every repairable item is cheaper to buy.
Opinion essays: choose a position and develop your reasons →
Green roofs on university buildings
Universities should be required to include planted green roofs on all suitable new buildings, even if this increases construction costs. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Planning focus: Keep a building requirement within its stated scope.
The proposal concerns suitable new university buildings. Do not turn it into a demand to rebuild every existing roof. Give and support the extent of your agreement while addressing the construction-cost objection.
Opinion essays: choose a position and develop your reasons →
The first question needs causes and practical responses. The other two ask how far you agree with a requirement. Do not force all three into a general essay about pollution or a memorised list of environmental benefits.
Follow a cause through to a matched response
Consider an illustrative household that buys ingredients for several meals before checking which evenings everyone will be at home. If plans change, some purchases may remain unused. The useful explanation links purchasing decisions with likely consumption; it does not simply call the household careless.
- Cause: a shopping plan assumes more meals will be cooked than the household is likely to prepare.
- Household action: check the week’s commitments and existing supplies before deciding what to buy.
- Retailer action: offer quantities that let a shopper buy what the plan actually requires, such as loose produce or smaller packs.
- Limit: the smaller quantity must remain a realistic choice; a much higher unit price could discourage a shopper with a tight budget.
An original developed extract
“A household may buy more ingredients than it will use when its shopping list assumes an uninterrupted week of home cooking. Checking which meals are actually planned would help the shopper choose a more suitable quantity. Retailers could support that decision by offering smaller amounts without a large price penalty per unit. The two measures address the same mismatch: planning identifies the quantity needed, while the retail option makes that quantity possible to purchase.”
The extract gives each actor a distinct action and explains how the actions work together. It is not a full essay: the remaining paragraphs still need to develop the required causes and responses.
Distinguish preventing waste from handling it afterwards
Buying a suitable quantity aims to prevent unnecessary surplus. A proposal for collecting discarded material addresses what happens later. Both can be relevant to an environmental discussion, but they act at different stages. If your explanation says households buy too much, show how your response affects buying or use before moving to disposal.
“Raise awareness” also needs a mechanism. Specify what information people receive, what decision it helps them make and why that decision could change the outcome. Read the complete food-waste essay to compare several causes with actions by both households and retailers.
A benefit supports a requirement only when the connection is clear
Repairable products: design is one part of practical repair
In a hypothetical product, making a component removable could allow a failed part to be replaced while the rest stays in use. But that opportunity is limited if the replacement part is unavailable. A developed argument therefore connects design with parts and service information instead of treating “easy to open” as the entire benefit.
The higher purchase price is part of the question. You can argue that longer useful life justifies an initial premium, or that a broad requirement imposes too much cost. Either position needs to consider who pays now, what later benefit is plausible and which conditions make it possible. Do not promise that every buyer will save money.
Green roofs: address suitable new buildings
The words “suitable” and “new” limit this proposal before you begin. An objection that every old building would need reconstruction attacks a different policy. A more relevant issue is whether the anticipated benefit justifies additional construction and ongoing care on the buildings covered by the question.
For factual background, the US EPA’s explanation of green roofs describes vegetation and growing material capturing rainwater and releasing it gradually. That supports a specific water-management mechanism; it does not establish that a roof eliminates all flooding or is appropriate in every location.
Turn a vague exception into a meaningful condition
“The university should install a green roof unless it is unsuitable” largely repeats the prompt. A more useful plan asks how suitability would be established and who would maintain the roof. You can discuss a documented assessment and an assigned maintenance budget as conditions of your proposed policy, without inventing engineering measurements.
Similarly, “products should be repairable unless it is difficult” gives little guidance. Explain the requirement you support—such as access to replacement parts—and the particular cost or feasibility concern that limits it. The opinion-essay guide shows how a qualified position can remain clear.
A counterargument should influence your reasoning. If you acknowledge cost but then conclude “environmental protection is important” without weighing it, you have repeated your preference rather than answered the objection.
Use environmental vocabulary to specify the argument
- Prevent waste
- Stop material from becoming unwanted or unused in the first place.
Buying quantities that match planned meals can help prevent waste.
Distinguish prevention from collecting or treating material after it is discarded.
- Unit price
- The cost for a standard amount, such as one item or one kilogram.
A smaller pack may be affordable at the checkout but have a higher unit price.
This is different from the total price of the pack.
- Useful life
- The period during which an item continues to perform a useful function.
Access to a replacement component may extend a product’s useful life.
Do not confuse this with a warranty period or promise a particular number of years.
- Upfront cost
- The expense paid at the beginning.
The proposal accepts a higher upfront cost in exchange for a possible longer-term benefit.
State the benefit and its conditions rather than assuming an initial expense pays for itself.
- Maintenance responsibility
- The duty to arrange and fund ongoing care.
A building proposal should identify maintenance responsibility as well as the initial design.
Name the organisation or role that would carry it out.
- Evidence-based exception
- A departure from a general proposal justified by relevant information.
An evidence-based exception would require an explanation of why the usual requirement does not fit a particular case.
This describes the policy you propose; it is not a claim about an existing law.
Avoid using “sustainable” or “eco-friendly” as the whole explanation. Name the narrower effect you mean, such as reducing unnecessary replacement or managing rainwater, then show how the action could produce it.
Repair a solution that does not address its cause
Consider this plan: “Small households buy more than they need because the available packs are too large. Retailers should run advertisements saying waste is bad.”
Keep the identified cause. Replace the response with a retailer action that changes the purchasing choice, explain the connection and include one practical limit.
Compare one matched response
“Retailers could offer a smaller pack alongside the standard size, allowing a household to buy closer to the amount it expects to use. The smaller pack would need a reasonable unit price so that avoiding surplus is a viable choice, rather than a more expensive option shoppers are unlikely to select.”
This changes the quantity available to purchase, which addresses the stated cause. It also explains why price matters to whether the measure works. A general advertisement leaves the pack-size constraint untouched.
- Have you identified the specific environmental problem?
- Does each action belong to an actor named or relevant to the question?
- Can the reader follow the action through to its intended effect?
- Have you preserved words such as “suitable”, “new” and “even if”?
- Are the costs and limits reflected in your final judgement?
For another cause-and-response exercise, use the problems, causes and solutions guide. The paragraph-development lesson helps you turn a short note into an explanation.
Write an environmental argument with a clear mechanism
Choose one original question, plan the required response and write at least 250 words in about 40 minutes. Public AI assessment is paused; the free workspace provides a planner, timer and word count without an account. The rule-based demo is not an AI score.