IELTS Speaking Part 2: A Law on Environmental Protection – Model Answers 2026

This is a new Part 2 topic in the official IELTS Speaking question bank for May–August 2026. You have one minute to prepare and two minutes to speak. Start with the law directly.

Cue Card

Describe a law on environmental protection.

You should say:
– What it is
– How you first learned about it
– Who benefits from it
– And explain how you feel about this law

Model Answer

The law I want to describe is the United Kingdom’s Climate Change Act of 2008, which was the first legally binding national commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the world. The UK was the first country to pass this kind of legislation, and it set a target of reducing emissions by at least eighty percent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. That target was later revised to net zero by 2050.

I first learned about it during a university course on environmental policy. We studied it as a case of legislative design that had genuinely influenced policy thinking in other countries, including the framework used to build parts of the Paris Agreement in 2015. What struck me at the time was that the law created legal accountability for future governments, not just the one that passed it. A government that failed to meet the interim carbon budgets set under the Act could face legal challenge. That mechanism of holding future administrations accountable through law rather than political commitment is what makes it structurally different from a policy announcement.

The beneficiaries are, ultimately, everyone, though the distribution of that benefit is spread across time in ways that make it politically difficult. People alive today make real economic adjustments to deliver benefits primarily to people who are not yet born. The communities most immediately affected by flooding, air quality deterioration, and extreme heat in the UK benefit more directly, and these tend to be lower-income areas less able to adapt on their own resources.

My feeling about it is that it represents the clearest example I know of a government accepting responsibility for a harm that extends beyond any single electoral cycle. That is genuinely unusual. Whether the targets will be met is a different question, and the record so far is mixed. But the architecture of accountability that the law created remains important regardless of the outcome.

Why This Works

The answer introduces a real, specific law with historical context. The explanation of the accountability mechanism (future governments held legally responsible) is the kind of specific analytical observation that marks a Band 7 answer. The final paragraph distinguishes between the value of the law’s architecture and the question of whether its targets will be met.

📌 Band 7-8 Vocabulary:
– legally binding — enforceable by law
– net zero — achieving a balance between the amount of greenhouse gas emitted and removed
– interim carbon budgets — short-term limits on emissions set as stepping stones toward longer targets
– electoral cycle — the period between one election and the next
– architecture of accountability — the structural systems that ensure responsibility is enforced

IELTS Speaking Part 3: Environmental Law Questions and Model Answers

Question 1: What kinds of rules do schools have?

Model Answer:
Schools typically operate with rules across three categories. Behavioural rules governing how students treat each other and staff. Academic rules covering attendance, submission of work, and academic integrity. Safety rules relating to the physical environment and emergency procedures. In the UK, schools also increasingly have policies on digital device use, social media conduct, and safeguarding that reflect changes in the social environment outside school. The consistency of enforcement is often more important than the content of the rules themselves. Rules applied selectively or erratically generate resentment in ways that clearly and consistently applied rules do not.

Question 2: Do you think school rules are important?

Model Answer:
They are necessary but their importance depends almost entirely on how they are designed and applied. Rules that have a clear rationale and are consistently enforced create an environment where learning is possible. Rules that exist primarily to assert institutional authority without serving any genuine educational or safety purpose tend to produce the opposite, resentment, rule-gaming, and reduced trust between students and the institution. Research on school discipline in both the UK and US has consistently shown that exclusionary disciplinary approaches, suspension, expulsion, tend to worsen outcomes for the students they are applied to and do not improve the environment for others.

Question 3: Are children unhappy with school rules?

Model Answer:
Some rules, yes. Uniform policies in particular generate consistent resistance from students in the UK, where they are more prevalent than in most other education systems. Phone bans have become a flashpoint more recently as schools across England have moved to restrict devices during school hours. What the research on student attitude toward school rules consistently shows, however, is that children’s objections are more often to rules they perceive as arbitrary or unfairly applied than to rules they understand the purpose of. Students generally accept that behaviour rules are necessary. The complaints tend to be about specific rules or specific enforcement rather than the concept of rules itself.

Question 4: What are the rules people should obey at work?

Model Answer:
Workplace rules exist across several layers. Legal requirements, health and safety obligations, non-discrimination and harassment policies, data protection requirements. These are not discretionary. Beyond the legal layer, most organisations have professional conduct expectations, confidentiality norms, and communication standards that vary significantly by sector and culture. Financial services in the UK, for example, operate under a conduct regime where individual employees can be personally held accountable for professional failures in ways that most other industries do not require. The general principle that underlies most defensible workplace rules is the same as in school. Rules should serve a purpose that a reasonable person can understand, and they should be applied consistently.

Examiner Tips for IELTS Speaking Part 2 Environmental Law

Tip 1: Choose a real law with a specific name and date.
The UK Climate Change Act 2008 is real, specific, and internationally significant. That specificity immediately signals genuine knowledge.

Tip 2: Explain the mechanism, not just the intention.
What makes this law interesting is the accountability mechanism for future governments. Explaining how the law works is more impressive than just describing what it aims to achieve.

Tip 3: For Part 3, use real research and real policy examples.
UK phone bans in schools, exclusionary discipline research, financial services conduct regime. Named examples give Part 3 answers immediate authority.

Common Mistakes on This Topic

Describing a vague environmental policy rather than a specific named law
Failing to explain who benefits from the law and how
Part 3 answers that give only a personal opinion with no reference to real rules or research
Opening with “I would like to describe an environmental law…”

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a confirmed IELTS Speaking Part 2 topic for 2026?
Yes. A Law on Environmental Protection appears in the official IELTS Speaking question bank for May–August 2026 as a new topic.

Does the law have to be from my country?
No. An international or foreign law described with specific knowledge and genuine analysis is equally valid.

What if I do not know any specific environmental laws?
Choose a well-known policy like the single-use plastic bag ban, which has been implemented in many countries in various forms, and describe it as your example. It is not technically a law in all jurisdictions, but the examiner is assessing your English, not conducting a legal audit.