Climate change: Simple guide to 25 common terms

By Sylvia Chebet

As world leaders, experts in climate science and climate activists converge in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the COP29 summit, citizens across the world are keen to follow the talks touted as critical to the planet's future, except the language is undeniably complex.

Mix climate science and the political language of global treaty negotiations and you have the recipe for a (rapidly warming) cauldron of alphabet soup.

Here is a compilation and meaning of some of the tongue-twisting abbreviations, acronyms, and core terms that help make climate change language a little more succinct.

Here are 25 common terms:

1. Adaptation: This is the practice of preparing for and adjusting to the impacts of climate change. It touches on everything from livelihoods and healthcare, to improving water and food systems, to resilient infrastructure, to early warning systems and disaster preparedness. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says the gap between needs and available funding for adaptation ranges from nearly $200 to about $400 billion every year.

2. Carbon Footprint: This is the total amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere each year by a person, family, building, organization, or company. A person's carbon footprint includes greenhouse gas emissions from fuel that an individual burns directly - by driving, suing electricity and gas at home - and indirectly through production of goods or services that the individual uses. These include emissions from power plants that make electricity, factories that make products, and landfills where garbage go.

3. Carbon sink: Anything that absorbs more carbondioxide from the atmosphere than it releases. Forests, soil and the ocean are the world’s largest carbon sinks. In contrast, a carbon source is anything that releases more carbon into the atmosphere than it absorbs. Continued reliance on fossil fuels for energy means billions of tonnes of carbon are released into the atmosphere every year. Climate scientists warn that such human activity is upsetting the balance as more carbon is released into the atmosphere than the earth’s natural carbon sinks can absorb.

4. Climate change: Climate change refers to any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time. This includes major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, among others, that occur over several decades or longer.

4. Climate finance: Money for mitigation, adaptation, as well as loss and damage. Rich countries – which historically contributed the most to climate change – are obligated under international agreements to lead in paying for climate finance. The “polluter pays” principle holds that those responsible for causing climate change should finance the response. Developed countries agreed in 2009 to provide $100 billion a year in climate finance to developing countries by 2020. Despite low levels of commitment to the $100 billion pledge, the COP29 summit in Baku hopes to expand the target to at least $1 trillion.

5. Carbon credits: Also known as carbon allowances, they work like permission slips for emissions. When a company buys a carbon credit (usually from the government), they gain permission to generate one ton of CO2 emissions. With carbon credits, carbon revenue flows vertically from companies to regulators. Carbon offsets flow horizontally, where companies trade carbon revenue. When one company removes a unit of carbon from the atmosphere as part of their normal business activity, they can generate a carbon offset. Other companies can then purchase that carbon offset to reduce their own carbon footprint. A carbon market allows investors and corporations to trade both carbon credits and carbon offsets simultaneously to mitigate environmental crisis.

6. Conference of the Parties (COP): The supreme body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), comprising 198 nations that have ratified the Convention. Established in 1992 to tackle human-caused climate change, the first COP convened in Berlin, Germany in1995. The Kyoto Protocol, was adopted during COP3 in Japan in December 1997 aiming to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and the presence of greenhouse gases. The Paris Agreement adopted in France during the COP21 summit targets to keep the global temperature rise as low as 2°C (1.5°C if possible) compared to the pre-industrial era. COP29, currently underway in Baku, Azerbaijan targets to deliver adequate climate financing.

7. CVF: The Climate Vulnerable Forum is a high-level “cooperation platform” linking heads of state and government from countries most affected by climate change. It is a relatively new group formed in 2009. An offshoot of the CVF, the aptly named V20 (Vulnerable 20 Group) brings together economic ministers to push for climate financing with a common voice. They estimate that climate change has destroyed one fifth of their countries’ wealth since 2000.

8. Developed and developing: The UN climate convention (UNFCCC) still follows rules set in 1992 in which countries are classified as “developed” or “developing”. The labels are meant to define who has the onus and ability to fund climate action and who is owed help. Least Developed Countries have low indicators of socioeconomic development and human resources, as well as economic vulnerability, as determined by the United Nations.

9. Emissions: The release of a substance (usually a gas when referring to climate change) into the atmosphere.

10. Global Warming: This the recent and ongoing global average increase in temperature near the Earths surface.

11. Greenhouse Gas (GHG): Any gas that absorbs infrared radiation in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases include, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone among others. Methane's global warming potential is estimated to be 25 times more than that of carbon dioxide (CO2). It is produced through anaerobic (without oxygen) decomposition of waste in landfills, animal digestion, decomposition of animal wastes, production and distribution of natural gas and petroleum, coal production, and incomplete fossil fuel combustion.

12. Fossil fuel subsidies (FFS): Climate advocates want governments to slash billions in subsidies to fossil fuel industries, and instead divert the cash to climate financing. Vanuatu became the first national government to sign on to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, or FFNPT (September 2022).

13. Heat Wave: Refers to a prolonged period of excessive heat, often combined with excessive humidity.

14. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): This is the expert body that sifts through and puts together the rapidly expanding trove of scientific research into a huge compilation outlining what we know about climate change. Its authoritative “assessment reports” are published every few years. To whet the appetite, the IPCC publishes “special reports (SRs)” on specific topics. In 2018, the SR15 report contrasted the impacts of a 1.5-degree warmer world and a 2-degree one – helping to galvanise the current push to limit temperature rise to 1.5.

15. Loss and damage: The impacts of disasters caused by climate change. COP27 in Dubai saw a breakthrough agreement to create a dedicated loss and damage fund, which was followed by a year of tough negotiations. The fund was approved at COP28 held in Cairo, Egypt and an official, abbreviation-ready name followed: the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD). There’s still plenty of uncertainty about how the money will be raised, how it will be spent, and who can access it.

16. Mitigation: Refers to efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are driving global warming. Climate activist are keen to see a fossil fuel phaseout agreement, where the world would set a clear timeline for ending the use of coal, oil, and gas.

17. New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG): The plan, struck under the Paris Agreement, to agree on a much higher target in 2024, compared to the previous goal of $100 billion per year by 2020. Developing countries say far more is needed to adapt to climate change and to pay for mounting losses and damage. Discussions on a new target are expected to dominate COP29 with some negotiating groups calling for at least $1 trillion per year.

18. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): They outline each country’s actions to reduce emissions and adapt to a warming world. NDCs are essentially national gameplans to fight climate change. COP28 saw the conclusion of a first Global Stocktake – a Paris Agreement process designed to help countries assess progress. It’s both a report card and an opportunity to spice up those NDCs: New ones are due in February 2025, but as COP29 opened, only the United Arab Emirates and Brazil had submitted theirs.

19. World Meteorological Organization (WMO): The UN body that assists national and regional meteorological bodies with research and helps to set standards on tracking extreme weather. It also studies climate trends and recently concluded that 2024 will be the hottest year on record, and 2015-2024 will be the warmest 10 years.

20. Megacities: Cities with populations exceding10 million.

21. Ozone: This is a gaseous atmospheric constituent created by the interaction between solar ultraviolet radiation and molecular oxygen (O2).

22. Ozone Layer: The layer of ozone that begins approximately 15 km above Earth and thins to an almost negligible amount at about 50 km, shields the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. The highest natural concentration is at approximately 25 km above Earth.

23. Renewable Energy: Energy resources that are naturally replenishing such as hydropower, geothermal, solar, wind, among others.

24. Resilience: A capability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from significant threats with minimum damage to social well-being, the economy, and the environment.

25. Vulnerability: This is the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change. Vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude, and rate of climate variation to which a system is exposed; its sensitivity; and its adaptive capacity.