Glossary of climate change terms

Climate change has brought with it a raft of terms that, unless you’re involved in the field, are unlikely to be common knowledge. To co-incide with the release of The Organic Answer to Climate Change, I thought it might be useful to provide a glossary of commonly used climate change terms. Even though the list is by no means complete it does provide a decent lead into the topic. Like it or not, it looks like we’re all bound to hear a lot more about climate change in the years to come. If you’re keen to learn more right now, you might like to check out Dr Glen Barry’s Climate Ark Blog and also the Climate Change Action blog. Both of these are excellent resources. In the mean time, here are those terms…

Abatement – Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, or enhancement of greenhouse gas removal from the atmosphere by sinks.

Afforestation – Planting of new forests on lands not recently forested.

Biosequestration – The removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide through biological processes, for example, photosynthesis in plants and trees.

Carbon capture and storage – Technology to capture and store greenhouse gas emissions from energy production or industrial processes. Captured greenhouse gases have the potential to be stored in a variety of geological sites.

Carbon – Carbon refers to the six major greenhouse gases.

Carbon dioxide – A naturally occurring gas; it is also a by-product of burning fossil fuels and biomass, other industrial processes and land-use changes. It is the principal anthropogenic greenhouse gas that affects the earth’s temperature.

Carbon dioxide equivalent – A standard measure that takes account of the different global warming potentials of greenhouse gases and expresses the cumulative effect in a common unit.

Carbon footprint – A measure of the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to an activity; it is commonly used at an individual, household or business level.

Carbon market – A generic term for a trading system in which countries, organizations and individuals buy or sell units of greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to meet limits on emissions.

Carbon offset – carbon offsets represent reductions in greenhouse gases relative to a business-as-usual baseline. Carbon offsets are tradeable and often used to negate (or offset) all or part of another entities emissions.

Carbon sequestration – The long-term storage of carbon dioxide in forests, soils, oceans or underground. Studies have found that organic farming has the capacity to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store as soil carbon.

Carbon sinks – Natural or man-made systems that absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, including trees, plants and the oceans.

Climate change – As defined by the UNFCCC, a change in climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability over comparable time periods.

Cogeneration – The production of two useful forms of energy such as high temperature heat (for hot water or space heating) and electricity from the same process. Also known as combined heat and power.

Deforestation – The conversion of forested land to an alternative, non-forest use.

Emissions – The release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Greenhouse effect – The trapping of heat by naturally occurring heat-retaining atmospheric gases (water vapour, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane and ozone) that keeps the earth about 60 degrees farenheit warmer than if these gases did not exist.

Greenhouse gases – Gases that cause global warming and climate change. The major greenhouse gases (GHGs) are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride.

Hydrochlorofluorocarbons – Compounds containing hydrogen, chlorine, fluorine and carbon atoms. Although ozone depleting substances, they are less potent at destroying stratospheric ozone than CFCs.

Hydrofluorocarbons – Compounds containing only hydrogen, fluorine and carbon atoms. They were introduced as alternatives to ozone-depleting substances in serving many industrial, commercial and personal needs. HFCs are emitted as by-products of industrial processes and are also used in manufacturing.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – Established in 1988, the IPCC surveys worldwide scientific and technical literature and publishes assessment reports that are widely recognised as the most credible existing sources of information on climate change. The IPCC also works on methodologies and responds to specific requests from the UNFCCC’s decision-making bodies.

Kyoto Protocol – An international treaty negotiated under the auspices of the UNFCCC. It enetered into force in 2005. Among other things, the Protocol sets binding targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by individual developed countries to be met within the first commitment period of 2008-12.

Low-emissions technology – Technology which produces a product with minimal greenhouse gas emissions. The term is commonly used to refer to power generation technologies (such as renewable, nuclear and clean coal generation), but applies equally to other sectors including transport and agriculture.

Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) – A group of artificial chemicals comprising only carbon and fluorine. These chemicals were introduced as alternatives, along with hydrofluorocarbons, to the ozone-depleting substances. PFCs are also emitted as by-products of industrial processes and are also used in manufacturing.

Reforestation – Conversion of land used for purposes other than forestry to forested land.

Sequestration – The removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide, either through biological processes (for example, photosynthesis in plants and trees).

UNFCCC – United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. An international treaty adopted after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and aimed at achieving the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.