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Do you ever feel confused by terms used to talk about sustainability & climate change?

We look at some of the most common ones here. If you would like us to define other words, or have any questions please contact us using the button at the bottom of the page.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a contentious term as it can be interpreted and defined in multiple ways, often informed by political ideology and individuals’ personal belief systems. One broadly accepted definition is that sustainability has three pillars: social, ecological and economic, and the marriage of these three pillars results in sustainability. Another widely used interpretation of sustainability is Australian academic Sharon Beder’s six principles of sustainability. These principles are the sustainability principle, the polluter pays principle, the precautionary principle, the equity principle, the human rights principle and the participation principle. You can explore these principles further here.

The first definition of ‘sustainable development’ appeared in the 1987 Brundtland report as: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". This definition is still widely used today.

 

The Anthropocene

A term proposed by Crutzen and Stoermer in 2000, the Anthropcene is a geological epoch viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Although now widely recognised, the concept continues to be debated within the scientific community alongside the year that this geological era started.

 

The Holocene

The Holocene is a term used to describe the current epoch of the Earth’s history characterised by 12,000 years of stable climate since the last ice age during which all human civilisation developed. This term however has been fiercely debated in recent years with many arguing that the Earth has now been so profoundly changed by humans that the Holocene must give way to the Anthropocene.

 

Mitigation

Mitigation, or mitigating emissions, means any effort that attempts to reduce the production of greenhouse gas emissions, such as replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy.

 

Adaptation

Adaptation is the process of adapting and reducing vulnerability to the effects of climate change. Examples include building flood defences, reforestation, and developing evacuation plans.

 

Sixth Mass Extinction

The Sixth Mass Extinction refers to an ongoing extinction event of species during the epoch of the Anthropocene as a result of human activity. Included extinctions comprise numerous families of plants and species of animals alongside widespread degradation of biodiverse ecosystems and habitats such as coral reefs and rainforests. The vast majority of these extinctions remain undocumented and the current rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background rates.

 

Net Zero/ Carbon Neutral

Net zero or carbon neutral means overall greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide in particular) are as close to zero as possible. This involves any action that removes as much carbon in the atmosphere as is put into it. While some emissions are still being generated, these emissions are being offset somewhere else making the overall emissions net zero.

 

Zero Carbon

This term describes an activity where no carbon was produced.

 

Business-as-usual (BAU)

Business-as-usual, or BAU, when used in reference to climate change, means maintaining high consumption, high emissions lifestyles, work patterns, industry and production. In short, continuing on the trajectory to three or four degrees of global warming. Climate Action Tracker allows you to see how current policies are affecting temperature projections.

 

Carbon Offsetting

A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for emissions emitted elsewhere. Essentially, carbon offset schemes allow individuals and companies to invest in environmental projects around the world in order to balance out their own carbon footprints. Many of these projects are based in countries in the Global South and are designed to reduce further emissions through practices such as rolling out renewable energy technologies or absorbing carbon dioxide from the air through tree planting. 

There are two key markets for carbon offsetting. The larger of these two markets is dominated by larger companies,  governments, or other entities that buy carbon offsets in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit.  The smaller market market centres around the voluntary activities of individuals, companies or governments. For example, an individual might purchase a carbon offset to compensate for taking a flight.

 

Carbon Sink

A carbon sink is a natural system that absorbs and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The main carbon sinks are plants, soils and oceans. Plants take in carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, and some of this carbon dioxide is transferred to soils when the plants die and decompose (peatlands are a great example). Forests are also carbon sinks, which is why areas like the Amazon are so important, and sometimes called the ‘lungs of our planet’. Oceans are the world’s largest carbon sinks, absorbing carbon dioxide through marine plants and animals and storing (or ‘sequestering’) it - however, increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are causing oceans to become increasingly acidic.

 

Scope 1, 2 and 3

According to the Carbon Trust: Greenhouse gas emissions are categorised into three groups or 'scopes' by the most widely-used international accounting tool, the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol.

Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, such as driving a car (and thereby burning fuel)
Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling consumed by the reporting company such as purchased electricity, heat and steam
Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain such as waste disposal, employee commuting, use of sold products and investments

 

Carbon Footprint

A carbon footprint is defined as the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organisation, or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent.

 

Emissions Profile/Baseline Emissions

A Greenhouse Gas emissions profile provides detailed, sectoral data about an entity’s energy consumption and levels of GHG emissions, including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, with the aim of pinpointing initiatives that will reduce energy use and cost. Profiles can be made for emitters at various scales, from individual households and companies, to cities and countries.

Baseline emissions refer to the production of emissions in the past and up to the point that reduction (or mitigation) policies and strategies were introduced. The measurement is calculated over a period of time, usually one year - the ‘baseline year’. This historical measurement is used as a benchmark against which to judge the success of mitigation strategies or policies.

 

Blue/Green Infrastructure

In the context of an urbanised environment, green and blue infrastructure is understood as all natural and semi-natural landscape elements that form a green-blue network. Examples of green landscape elements are hedgerows, copses, bushes, orchards, woodlands, natural grasslands and ecological parks. Blue landscape elements are linked to water such as lakes, ponds and pond systems, wadis, artificial buffer basins or water courses. Together they form the green-blue infrastructure. 

 

Grey Infrastructure

Grey infrastructure refers to the human-engineered infrastructure for water resources such as water and wastewater treatment plants, pipelines, and reservoirs. 

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