COP, carbon market, loss and damage: A glossary of climate terms

Key Terms in the Climate Change Conversation

With the COP28 summit just around the corner, terms like the Paris Agreement, Kyoto Protocol, loss and damage, and NDCs will soon make headlines. Here is a guide to key terms in the climate change conversation.

COP

COP is an international climate meeting organised annually by the United Nations (UN). COP is short for Conference of the Parties. ‘Parties’ is a reference to (now) 198 countries that have joined the international treaty called the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). ‘Parties’ to the treaty have pledged to take voluntary actions to prevent “dangerous anthropogenic [human-caused] interference with the climate system.”

Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty that placed obligations on the set of rich and industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by assigned amounts. It was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, and came into effect in 2005. The treaty formally expired in 2020 and was replaced by the Paris Agreement as the main international treaty for coordinating global action against climate change.

Paris Agreement

Adopted in 2015 at COP21 in Paris, the agreement is aimed to limit rising global average temperature. It’s considered a landmark deal as it legally binds (now) 195 nations, for the first time ever, to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.

1.5 degree limit

Under the Paris Agreement, the world governments have agreed to keep average global temperature “well below” 2 degree Celsius this century compared to pre-industrial levels. They have also pledged to pursue efforts to limit the rise to 1.5 degree Celsius — an important threshold, crossing which would unleash far more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall.

Glasgow Pact

Reached at the COP26 summit in Scotland’s Glasgow, the pact called for phase down of coal and phase out of fossil fuel. This was the first time that a UN climate agreement explicitly mentioned coal. The pact also marked the resolution of the deadlock over carbon markets.

Carbon markets

Such markets are essentially trading systems in which carbon credits are sold and bought. They allow countries, or industries, to earn carbon credits for the greenhouse gas emission reductions they make in excess of their targets. These carbon credits can be traded to the highest bidder in exchange for money. The buyers of carbon credits can show the emission reductions as their own and use them to meet their reduction targets.

• One tradable carbon credit is equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount of a different greenhouse gas reduced, sequestered or avoided.
• Once a credit is used to reduce, sequester, or avoid emissions, it becomes an offset and can no longer be tradable.

Greenhouse gases

The gases that trap heat in the atmosphere are known as greenhouse gases (GHGs). They allow sunlight to pass through the atmosphere, but obstruct the heat the sunlight brings from leaving. The main source of GHGs is the burning of fossil fuels like coal, diesel, gasoline or petrol, kerosene and natural gas. Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are among the most prominent GHGs.

Net-zero

Also referred to as carbon-neutrality, net-zero doesn’t mean that a country would reduce its emissions to zero. Rather, it is a state in which a country’s emissions entering the environment are equal to the greenhouse gases being removed from the atmosphere. The removal can be done by creating more carbon sinks such as forests or by implementing futuristic technologies such as carbon dioxide removal (CDR).

In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) marked 2050 as the deadline by which the world must reach net zero if it wants to limit global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS)

CCS is basically a process that captures carbon dioxide and traps it beneath the earth. It’s usually used at fossil fuel plants and factories, where it prevents the gas from escaping into the atmosphere. Notably, CCS is different from carbon dioxide removal (CDR), which involves sucking out carbon from the atmosphere.

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS)

CCUS goes a step further than CCS and uses the captured carbon in the production of goods such as alcohols, biofuels, plastics or concrete.

Geo-engineering

It is the deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth’s natural systems to tackle climate change. There are numerous proposed geo-engineering techniques, including CDR. Their effectiveness and potential side effects, however, remain widely debated.

IPCC

The IPCC is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). IPCC’s main activity is to prepare Assessment Reports, special reports, and methodology reports assessing the state of knowledge of climate change.

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

The Paris Agreement requires each country to prepare an outline for their efforts to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. These commitments are known as NDCs. They are submitted every five years, and successive NDCs are supposed to be more ambitious than previous ones.

National Adaptation Plans (NAPs)

The NAP helps countries develop plans to respond to climate change’s present and future impacts. They are aimed to reduce vulnerability to the severe effects of climate change and strengthen adaptive capacity and resilience. NAPs also play an essential role in updating and improving the adaptation elements of the NDCs.

Global stocktake

It refers to a five-year review in which countries assess where they are in the fight against climate change, and what needs to be done in the next five years to make this fight more effective and potent. COP28, which will take place from November 30 in Dubai, will witness the presentation of the findings of the first stocktake exercise.

Triple Renewable Energy

In 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) published its ‘Roadmap to Net Zero by 2050’ report, which said that if the world needs to meet the net zero goal,

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators in the Article

1. SDGs Addressed or Connected to the Issues Highlighted in the Article

   • SDG 13: Climate Action
   • SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
   • SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
   • SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
   • SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
   • SDG 15: Life on Land

   The article discusses various terms and concepts related to climate change, renewable energy, carbon capture, and sustainable development. These issues are directly connected to SDG 13 (Climate Action) and its targets, as well as other SDGs that are indirectly related to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

2. Specific Targets Under the SDGs Based on the Article’s Content

   • SDG 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning
   • SDG 7.2: Increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix
   • SDG 8.4: Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavor to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation
   • SDG 9.5: Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people
   • SDG 12.2: By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources
   • SDG 15.2: By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally

   The targets mentioned above are relevant to the issues discussed in the article, such as integrating climate change measures into policies, increasing renewable energy capacity, improving resource efficiency, promoting sustainable management of natural resources, and halting deforestation.

3. Indicators Mentioned or Implied in the Article

   • Carbon emissions reduction targets
   • Renewable energy capacity
   • Carbon credits trading
   • Greenhouse gas emissions
   • Net-zero emissions
   • Carbon capture and storage (CCS)
   • Carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS)
   • Progress in global stocktake

   The article mentions or implies several indicators that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets. These indicators include carbon emissions reduction targets, renewable energy capacity, carbon credits trading, greenhouse gas emissions, net-zero emissions, CCS, CCUS, and progress in global stocktake.

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

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Source: indianexpress.com

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