Describe an Environmental Problem in Your Area
A Band 8 model answer for the IELTS Part 2 cue card 'Describe an environmental problem', with the topic vocabulary you need and Part 3 questions about the environment and society.
Cue Card
Describe an environmental problem in your area.
You should say:
- what the problem is
- what causes it
- how it affects people
And explain what could be done to solve this problem.
Environmental cue cards reward two things: relevant topic vocabulary, and the ability to keep the answer grounded in your own experience rather than reciting facts you half-remember. The strongest answers describe a problem the speaker has actually witnessed, which keeps it concrete, and then handle the 'solution' bullet with a bit of nuance instead of a naive 'people should just recycle more'.
The model below is around Band 8. It picks a specific, local, visible problem — air pollution — and discusses it through personal observation, which is far more convincing than a memorised statistics dump.
Model Answer
Band 8The environmental problem that affects my area most directly is air pollution. I live in a fairly large, traffic-heavy city, and the air quality, especially in winter, has genuinely become something you can see and feel rather than an abstract statistic.
The causes are pretty clear, honestly. The biggest one is simply the sheer number of vehicles — the city has grown much faster than its public transport, so almost everyone drives, and the roads are gridlocked for hours every day. On top of that there's a fair amount of industry on the outskirts, and in winter the cold air traps all of those emissions close to the ground, so it just sits over the city in a kind of haze.
The way it affects people is the part that worries me most. On the bad days you can actually taste it, and there's been a really noticeable rise in respiratory problems — a lot of people I know have developed coughs or asthma that they never used to have, and it's particularly hard on children and the elderly. Beyond the health side, it genuinely affects quality of life; people stay indoors, you can't see the sky properly, and the whole city feels grey and a bit oppressive.
As for what could be done, I don't think there's a single magic solution — it really requires tackling the root cause, which is car dependency. Realistically that means investing heavily in public transport so that driving becomes a choice rather than a necessity, alongside things like restricting the most polluting vehicles in the city centre and creating more green spaces, since trees genuinely help filter the air. None of that is quick or cheap, but I think the alternative — a city that's slowly making its own residents ill — is far more expensive in the long run.
Why This Answer Works
- It stays concrete and personal. Rather than reciting global statistics, the speaker describes pollution they can 'see, taste and feel', which is far more convincing and much harder to fabricate.
- It deploys topic vocabulary naturally — emissions, gridlocked, respiratory problems, car dependency, green spaces — without it feeling like a memorised word list.
- It handles the cause-and-effect structure cleanly, moving from causes (traffic, industry, winter air) to effects (health, quality of life) in a logical, easy-to-follow order, which boosts the coherence score.
- The solution is realistic and nuanced. Acknowledging that there's no 'magic solution' and that change is 'slow and expensive' shows mature, balanced thinking — exactly what separates Band 8 from a simplistic answer.
Key Phrases to Steal
“something you can see and feel rather than an abstract statistic”
Frames the problem vividly and shows evaluative language.
“the roads are gridlocked for hours”
Precise topic vocabulary for heavy traffic.
“it just sits over the city in a kind of haze”
Descriptive, almost cinematic detail.
“driving becomes a choice rather than a necessity”
A crisp way to frame a transport solution.
“far more expensive in the long run”
A natural idiom that strengthens the argument's conclusion.
Part 3 Follow-Up Questions
Whose responsibility is it to protect the environment?
I think it's genuinely shared, but the proportions matter, and they're often misrepresented. Individuals do have a role — our daily choices add up — but there's been a deliberate effort to push the entire burden onto consumers, which conveniently distracts from the much larger impact of industry and government policy. Realistically, no amount of individual recycling offsets a lack of regulation on major polluters. So while everyone has a part to play, I'd argue the heaviest responsibility lies with governments and corporations, simply because they operate at the scale where real change happens.
Do you think people are doing enough to protect the environment?
Honestly, no — there's a striking gap between awareness and action. Most people now genuinely care about the environment and will say all the right things, but very few are willing to accept the inconvenience or cost that meaningful change actually requires. And I don't think that's pure hypocrisy; it's that individual sacrifice feels pointless when the systems around you are unchanged. That's exactly why I think the focus has to shift from guilt-tripping individuals to changing the systems that make the sustainable choice the easy, default one.
How can governments encourage people to be more environmentally friendly?
The most effective approach, in my view, is to make the green choice the convenient and affordable one, rather than relying on appeals to people's conscience. If reliable public transport is cheaper and faster than driving, people will use it without needing to be lectured. The same goes for things like making energy-efficient appliances more affordable or designing cities you can actually walk around. Essentially, behaviour follows incentives far more reliably than it follows information, so smart policy beats moral persuasion almost every time.
Now Try It Out Loud
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