What topics make up the CCEA Global Issues and Skills strand?

The strand covers climate change, planning for sustainable settlements, tropical and extreme environments, geographical skills and techniques, and statistical and fieldwork methods. It is the applied and synoptic part of the course, drawing together physical and human geography and underpinning the A2 3 Decision Making in Geography resource paper, where planning, sustainability and skills are tested together.

How is the skills and global content examined?

Geographical, statistical and fieldwork skills are embedded across every paper, but they come together in A2 3 Decision Making in Geography, a 1 hour resource-based paper. There you read a resource booklet, apply statistical and cartographic skills, weigh options against sustainability principles, and justify a decision. Climate change and extreme environments are also examined through the physical and human papers and applied in A2 3.

How does fieldwork fit into CCEA A-Level Geography?

Fieldwork is compulsory and underpins the statistical and fieldwork methods examined in the written papers. Students collect primary data in physical and human contexts, for example river channel surveys, beach profiles, environmental quality surveys and pedestrian counts, then apply sampling and statistical tests. CCEA assesses these skills in the exams rather than as a separately graded coursework report.

How should I revise the Global Issues and Skills strand?

Treat it as the synoptic glue of the course: connect climate change and extreme environments to the physical and human topics, and drill the skills until they are automatic. Practise sampling design, Spearman's rank and chi-squared with worked data, rehearse interpreting unfamiliar resources, and work past A2 3 Decision Making papers under timed conditions, always justifying a decision against sustainability criteria.

Northern IrelandGeography

CCEA A-Level Geography Global Issues and Skills: a complete overview of climate change, sustainability, extreme environments and fieldwork methods

Q: What statistical methods do I need for CCEA Geography?

You need to choose appropriate sampling strategies (random, systematic and stratified), collect primary and secondary data, and apply statistical tests, principally Spearman's rank correlation and the chi-squared test, interpreting results against significance levels, usually 0.05. You also need cartographic and graphical skills and a working understanding of geographical information systems.

A deep-dive CCEA A-Level Geography guide to the Global Issues and Skills strand. Covers climate change, planning for sustainable settlements, tropical and extreme environments, geographical skills and techniques, and statistical and fieldwork methods, with the synoptic and decision-making focus of the A2 3 resource paper.

Generated by Claude Opus 4.818 min readCCEAUpdated 2026-06-02

Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed

Jump to a section

What the Global Issues and Skills strand demands
Climate change
Planning for sustainable settlements
Tropical and extreme environments
Geographical skills and techniques
Statistical and fieldwork methods
How the strand is examined
Check your knowledge

What the Global Issues and Skills strand demands

Global Issues and Skills is the applied, synoptic strand of CCEA A-Level Geography. It runs from global climate change and the planning of sustainable settlements, through life in tropical and extreme environments, to the cartographic, statistical and fieldwork skills that underpin the whole qualification. The examiners test two linked abilities: understanding global issues at a range of scales, and applying skills and decision making to unfamiliar resources, above all in the A2 3 Decision Making in Geography paper.

This guide walks through the topics of the strand, then sets out the exam patterns CCEA repeats. Each topic has a matching dot-point page with practice questions; this overview ties them together.

Climate change

Climate change covers the evidence from ice cores, tree rings and instrumental records, the natural and human causes including the enhanced greenhouse effect, the impacts on sea level, weather and ecosystems, and the mitigation and adaptation strategies coordinated through agreements such as the Paris Agreement.

Planning for sustainable settlements

Planning for sustainable settlements covers the principles of sustainability, sustainable urban design, the management of transport, energy and waste, and the evaluation of schemes such as eco-towns and regeneration. This topic is central to the A2 3 Decision Making paper, where sustainability criteria guide the chosen decision.

Tropical and extreme environments

Tropical and extreme environments covers the characteristics of environments such as tropical rainforests and hot deserts, the challenges they pose, human adaptation and use, and their sustainable management, balancing development with the conservation of fragile ecosystems and the people who depend on them.

Geographical skills and techniques

Geographical skills and techniques covers cartographic skills (Ordnance Survey maps, grid references, thematic maps), graphical skills (matching the graph to the data), and ICT including geographical information systems. The key examined skill is choosing the right technique and interpreting it accurately.

Statistical and fieldwork methods

Statistical and fieldwork methods covers fieldwork design and sampling (random, systematic, stratified), the collection of primary and secondary data, and statistical tests, principally Spearman's rank correlation and the chi-squared test, interpreted against significance levels to accept or reject a null hypothesis.

How the strand is examined

A typical CCEA profile for the Global Issues and Skills strand:

Resource interpretation. Reading maps, graphs, photographs and statistics in a resource booklet, especially in A2 3.
Skills application. Choosing and applying sampling strategies and statistical tests, and presenting data in the right form.
Synoptic links. Connecting climate change and extreme environments to the physical and human units.
Decision making. Weighing options against sustainability principles and justifying a supported decision in A2 3.

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall and application questions covering the Global Issues and Skills strand. Attempt them, then check against the solutions.

Define the enhanced greenhouse effect. (2 marks)
Distinguish between mitigation and adaptation. (2 marks)
Define sustainable development. (2 marks)
State two characteristics of a tropical rainforest. (2 marks)
When would you use a triangular graph? (2 marks)
Distinguish between random and systematic sampling. (2 marks)
State what a Spearman's rank value of +0.9 indicates. (2 marks)
State the usual significance level used to judge a statistical result. (1 mark)

Solutions

Q1: Extra warming caused when human emissions of greenhouse gases trap more outgoing long-wave radiation in the atmosphere.
Q2: Mitigation reduces the causes by cutting emissions; adaptation reduces the impacts by adjusting to change, such as building flood defences.
Q3: Development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own.
Q4: A hot, wet climate and high biodiversity (also acceptable: layered vegetation, rapid nutrient cycling, thin leached soils).
Q5: For data made up of three components that sum to 100 per cent, such as soil texture or employment by sector.
Q6: Random sampling gives every point an equal chance of selection; systematic sampling selects at regular intervals, such as every nth point or fixed distance.
Q7: A strong positive correlation between the two ranked variables.
Q8: 0.05 (the 5 per cent level).

Sources & how we know this

CCEA GCE Geography specification — CCEA (2016)