A-D
Adaptation: Ways of coping with the impacts of global warming on species, ecosystems and human society.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS): the process of capturing greenhouse gas pollution from coal or gas power plants and storing it underground instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. This could reduce emissions by up to 70-80% from a power plant.
Carbon credit: is used in emission trading schemes (see emissions trading), where one credit gives the owner the right to emit one tonne of CO2.
Carbon dioxide (CO2): the most common greenhouse gas - carbon dioxide is released by burning fossil fuels, land clearing/deforestation and cropping.
Carbon neutral: where an individual or company's carbon emissions are effectively reduced to zero through a combination of reducing energy consumption, using renewable energy and offsetting the remainder by (for example) planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Carbon offsetting: where an investment is made in a project that will lead to the prevention or removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (for example, planting trees or building renewable energy power stations to avoid the construction of coal ones).
Clean coal: a term used to describe technologies designed to reduce the emissions amount of CO2 from coal fired-power staions that goes into the atmosphere.
Climate change: strictly speaking - significant changes from one climatic condition to another - but now commonly taken to refer to the increase in surface temperature of the Earth caused by human activities. Also often called 'global warming', 'anthropogenic climate change', 'anthropogenic global warming' and the 'enhanced greenhouse effect'.
Source:
WWF-Australia
E-J
Emissions: The release of substances (e.g., greenhouse gases) into the atmosphere.
Emissions trading: a scheme that allows companies either reduce emissions or pay for the right to pollute (with the money paid being used to reduce emissions elsewhere – often in developing countries).
Energy efficiency: is using less energy to provide the same amount of heating, cooling or other energy service. This usually refers to cutting energy wastage (like turning off unused lights, plant and equipment).
Fossil fuel: fuel of biological (plant and animal) origin and largely comprised of carbon and hydrogen. Coal, gas and oil are all fossil fuels.
Greenhouse gases: the gases (carbon dioxide, water vapour, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and various fluorocarbons) that blanket circling the Earth and which prevent solar radiation from the Sun being reflected back into space.
Greenhouse effect: the effect created by the band of greenhouse gases that blanket the Earth. The greenhouse effect keeps the Earth's surface within a range and at a level that makes life on Earth (as we know it) possible.
Source:
WWF-Australia
K-Z
Kyoto Protocol: an international agreement made in 1997 which sets emission reduction targets for developed countries and establishes mechanisms to reduce the emissions of developing countries. The Kyoto Protocol is an addendum to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Mitigation of global warming: actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions (in order to avoid global warming).
Renewable energy: energy derived from the wind, the sun, the tides and other sources that, for all practical purposes, cannot be depleted (unlike fossil fuels, for example).
MRET (Mandatory Renewable Energy Target): a scheme to increase the amount of electricity generated from 'renewable energy' sources.
Sequestration: the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere into trees, the oceans or deep underground.