As the COP26 summit tries to act on the climate emergency, observers will benefit from a basic knowledge of the technical climate terms and idioms underpinning debate. Indeed, what does COP even stand for? From the Anthropocene to the UNFCCC, here's a glossary of key terms that will pepper dialogue in Glasgow as the world comes together to save the planet.
1.5 C pathway
A climate mitigation pathway consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100. Climate scientists regard this temperature rise as the best-case warming scenario. Not just energy and transport, but economic growth, technological developments and lifestyle are factored into pathways consistent with 1.5 C of warming.
Adaptation
Finding ways to adjust to the impacts of human-induced climate change, including extreme weather. The idea is to moderate the harm, for instance, by constructing housing away from locations vulnerable to wildfires or sea level rise. Climate finance will be vital for funding adaptation measures.
Anthropocene
Human activity has had such an impact on the climate and the environment that it has led to the naming of a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. The mid-20th century is regarded as the moment that human activities transformed the Earth system, especially through rapidly increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Carbon budget
The amount of greenhouse gas emissions humanity can emit this century and still keep temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. Carbon budgets also relate to the emission limit — and associated carbon credits or permits — set as part of a cap and trade scheme. Entities need to surrender permits equal to their emissions. When they break their budget, they need to splash out for more credits.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS)
Reducing carbon emissions to tackle global warming by capturing the CO2 produced by power generation or industrial activity, and then transporting it to store deep underground.
Carbon intensity
A measure often used by developing countries when addressing emissions reductions, it measures the CO2 released per unit of economic output, which is most often measured as gross domestic product (GDP).
Carbon lock-in
Existing fossil fuel-based energy systems have been so dominant that they inhibit efforts to introduce alternative energy. Carbon lock-ins happen when coal-, gas- and oil-fired energy create an inertia that inhibits the transition to zero emission alternatives. This understanding can prompt policymakers to consider early retirement of existing high-emissions infrastructure.
Carbon neutrality
Balancing emitted CO2 by removing the equivalent amount from the atmosphere through sequestration in carbon sinks — including soil, forests and oceans. As these sinks are damaged, or cut down in the case of forests, emissions need to be equally cut to maintain carbon neutrality.
Carbon tax
Under a carbon tax, the government sets a price that emitters must pay for each ton of greenhouse gas they emit. A carbon tax differs from carbon trading in that it provides a higher level of certainty about cost but not about the level of emissions reduction to be achieved.
Carbon trading
Also known as cap and trade, this market-based incentive to meet carbon reduction targets caps green house gas emissions and divides them into tradeable emission permits, or carbon credits. If a company overextends its credits, it will have to buy more from an entity that lowered emissions and has carbon credit in the bank. The lower the emissions, the lower the costs; and the higher the profit.
Climate justice
The world's poorest and most vulnerable people, and future generations, will suffer the worse climate change impacts. Climate justice aims to equitably and fairly share the burdens of climate change through broad investment in mitigation, adaptation and sustainable development.
CO2 price
As part of an emissions trading scheme, the carbon price can refer to the cost of emissions per ton, or the cost of carbon credits. The higher the carbon price, the bigger the incentive to cut emissions, meaning it is also a gauge of the economic cost of mitigation. A carbon price also refers to the rate of a carbon tax, which puts a price on emissions.
COP
The Conference of the Parties is the supreme body of U.N. conventions, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. All states that are parties to that convention are represented at the COP, during which they review implementation of targets set in the Paris Agreement, for example, and decide how to better achieve climate mitigation measures.
Decarbonization
The process by which countries, individuals or other entities aim to achieve zero fossil carbon emissions largely associated with electricity, industry and transport.
Mitigation
Reducing green house gas emissions and increasing greenhouse gas sinks to limit global heating.
Net-zero
Balancing the amount of GHGs emitted with the amount removed from the atmosphere. This balancing should include actual emission cuts, not just offsets by planting trees to create carbon sinks, for example — which is sufficient for carbon neutrality.
Paris Agreement
The first-ever universal, legally binding global climate change agreement adopted at the Paris climate conference (COP21) in December 2015. It established a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2 C, and preferably to 1.5 C.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
In 1992 at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, 154 states signed a convention to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system" by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol first enshrined the measures under the UNFCCC, before it was superseded by the Paris Agreement of 2015.
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