Carbon Credit or Carbon Offset: A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions made to compensate for emissions produced elsewhere, typically achieved through investments in projects that reduce or remove emissions.
Carbon Footprint: The total amount of greenhouse gases emitted directly or indirectly by an individual, organization, product, or activity, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
Emissions Reduction: The process of decreasing the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, often achieved through energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy adoption, and other mitigation measures.
Offset Portfolio: A diversified collection of carbon offset projects purchased by a company to mitigate its carbon footprint, often comprising projects from various sectors such as renewable energy, forestry, and methane capture.
Additionality: The concept that a carbon offset project must result in emissions reductions or removals that would not have occurred without the financial support generated by the sale of carbon credits.
Co-Benefits: Additional positive outcomes beyond carbon mitigation that result from implementing carbon offset projects, such as improved air quality, biodiversity conservation, or socioeconomic development.
Leakage Risk: The potential for unintended increases in emissions outside the boundaries of a carbon offset project due to changes in behavior or activity resulting from the project's implementation, often associated with forestry and land-use projects.
Baseline Emissions: The quantity of greenhouse gas emissions that would have occurred in the absence of a carbon offset project, used as a reference point for calculating emissions reductions achieved by the project.
Vintage Year: The year in which carbon credits were generated or issued by a carbon offset project, indicating the specific period during which emissions reductions or removals occurred.
Double Counting: The practice of counting emissions reductions or removals from a carbon offset project more than once, either by multiple parties or within overlapping regulatory frameworks, leading to inaccuracies in emissions accounting.
Social Carbon: An aspect of carbon offset projects that focuses on social impact, such as job creation, community empowerment, or poverty alleviation, in addition to carbon mitigation efforts.
Gold Standard: A widely recognized certification standard for carbon offset projects, ensuring rigorous project design, monitoring, and verification processes, as well as robust environmental and social co-benefits.
Verra Standard: Globally recognized certification for carbon offset projects, ensuring rigorous criteria for credibility, transparency, and environmental integrity in project development.
Renewable Energy: Energy derived from natural resources that are replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat.
Reforestation: The establishment of forests on lands that have previously been deforested or degraded, aimed at restoring ecological functions and capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Carbon Sequestration: The capture and long-term storage of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, typically through biological processes such as photosynthesis, or geological processes such as carbon capture and storage.
Carbon Pricing: A policy mechanism that assigns a monetary value to carbon emissions, either through taxes or a market-based system such as cap-and-trade, to incentivize emissions reductions.
Methane Capture: The capture and utilization or destruction of methane emissions from sources such as landfills, wastewater treatment plants, agricultural activities, and industrial processes.
Climate Neutrality: A state in which an individual, organization, or activity has no net impact on climate change, typically achieved through emissions reductions, carbon offsets, and carbon removals.
Carbon Neutrality: A state in which an entity's greenhouse gas emissions are balanced by an equivalent amount of emissions reductions, carbon removals, or offsetting measures, resulting in no net contribution to climate change.
Cap-and-Trade: A regulatory system that sets a limit (cap) on the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions allowed from certain sectors, and allows companies to buy and sell permits (credits) to emit, incentivizing emissions reductions.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS): A technology that captures carbon dioxide emissions from industrial processes or power plants and stores them underground to prevent their release into the atmosphere.
Carbon Intensity: The amount of carbon dioxide emissions produced per unit of economic output, often used as a measure of the environmental efficiency of an activity, product, or process.
Carbon Leakage: The phenomenon whereby carbon-intensive industries relocate their operations to countries with less stringent environmental regulations, resulting in no net reduction in global emissions.
Carbon Market: A system that allows the buying and selling of carbon credits or emissions allowances, enabling companies to meet their emissions targets and achieve compliance with regulatory requirements.
Carbon Tax: A tax imposed on the carbon content of fossil fuels or other greenhouse gas emissions, designed to internalize the external costs of climate change and incentivize emissions reductions.
Decarbonization: The process of reducing or eliminating the carbon intensity of energy and industrial systems, typically by transitioning to renewable energy sources and implementing energy efficiency measures.
Greenhouse Gas (GHG): Gases that trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere and contribute to the greenhouse effect, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and fluorinated gases.
Offsetting: The practice of compensating for one's own carbon emissions by investing in projects that reduce or remove emissions elsewhere, such as renewable energy or reforestation initiatives.
Sustainability: Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, often encompassing environmental, social, and economic considerations.
Carbon Accounting: The process of quantifying and tracking carbon emissions, typically done to assess an organization's carbon footprint and identify opportunities for emissions reductions.
Carbon Disclosure: The practice of publicly reporting information about an organization's carbon emissions, climate-related risks, and sustainability initiatives, often in response to stakeholder demands or regulatory requirements.
Carbon Neutrality Pledge: A commitment made by an individual, organization, or government to achieve carbon neutrality, typically through a combination of emissions reductions, carbon offsets, and carbon removals.
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): A flexible mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol that allows developed countries to invest in emissions reduction projects in developing countries, earning carbon credits for their investments.
Climate Action Plan: A comprehensive strategy developed by governments, businesses, or organizations to mitigate and adapt to climate change, typically outlining specific goals, targets, and actions to reduce emissions and enhance resilience.
Net Zero: A state in which an entity's greenhouse gas emissions are balanced by an equivalent amount of emissions reductions, carbon removals, or offsetting measures, resulting in no net contribution to climate change.
Climate Finance: Funding provided by governments, businesses, or international organizations to support climate-related projects and initiatives, such as renewable energy development, adaptation measures, and climate resilience efforts.
Greenwashing: The practice of misleadingly portraying a product, service, or organization as environmentally friendly or sustainable, often through deceptive marketing or PR tactics.
Renewable Energy Certificate (REC): A tradable certificate that represents the environmental attributes of one megawatt-hour of electricity generated from renewable sources, used to track and verify renewable energy production and consumption.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A set of 17 global goals established by the United Nations to address the world's most pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges, including climate change, poverty, and inequality.
Bioenergy: Energy derived from organic materials such as plants, agricultural residues, or organic waste, typically used for electricity generation, heating, or transportation fuels.
Carbon Leakage: The phenomenon whereby carbon-intensive industries relocate their operations to countries with less stringent environmental regulations, resulting in no net reduction in global emissions.
Climate Mitigation: Actions and strategies aimed at reducing or preventing greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the impacts of climate change, often through energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy adoption, and emissions reductions.
Climate Resilience: The ability of individuals, communities, ecosystems, and economies to withstand, adapt to, and recover from the impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and changing precipitation patterns.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): The commitment of businesses to operate in an ethical and sustainable manner, considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of their activities and decisions.
Emission Reduction Credits (ERCs): Tradable certificates representing verified reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, typically generated through emissions reduction projects or initiatives.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): A process for evaluating the potential environmental consequences of proposed projects, policies, or activities, often required by law or regulation before a project can proceed.
Greenhouse Gas Inventory: A comprehensive accounting of an organization's greenhouse gas emissions, typically conducted to assess its carbon footprint, track emissions over time, and identify opportunities for emissions reductions.
Mitigation Measures: Actions and strategies implemented to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change, including energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy adoption, and carbon offsetting.
Paris Agreement: An international treaty under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius, through nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and international cooperation.
Stakeholder Engagement: The process of involving individuals, groups, or organizations affected by or interested in a particular issue, project, or decision in the decision-making process, often to gather input, build consensus, or address concerns.
Sustainability Reporting: The practice of disclosing information about an organization's environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, typically in the form of reports or disclosures, to stakeholders such as investors, customers, employees, and regulators.
Triple Bottom Line (TBL): A framework for measuring an organization's performance based on three dimensions: social, environmental, and financial, often referred to as the "three Ps" of people, planet, and profit.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): An international treaty adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, aimed at stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.