Excerpted from UNU’s “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing countries (REDD): A Guide for Indigenous Peoples”
Adaptation: Activities to address the effects that climate change is already having on land, ecosystems and livelihoods.
Afforestation: Developing a forest on land that has not been forested in recent times.
Annex I parties: Industrialised countries listed in Annex I to the UN Convention on Climate Change. Nearly all of these countries are the countries that have binding emissions reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
Anthropogenic: Human-induced. The term used to distinguish naturally occurring greenhouse gas emission reductions from ones that result from human activity.
Bali Action Plan: One part of the Bali Roadmap, the Bali Action Plan is the name given to a decision taken by the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC that specifically concerns negotiations on future amendments of the Convention itself. The decision establishes an ‘Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action’ (‘AWGLCA’) to consider a specified set of Convention-related issues, which are also set out in the decision, with a view to reaching agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009 (UN Doc FCCC/CP/2007/L.7/Rev.1).
Bali Roadmap: The collection of decisions and conclusions adopted by the parties to the UNFCCC and to the Kyoto Protocol at the 2007 UN Climate Change Conference (Bali, Indonesia), which provide a process for agreeing to future revisions and additions to the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. The roadmap sets the aim of finalising all post-2012 discussions in all fora by the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009.
Baseline: In seeking to measure whether greenhouse gas emissions have decreased or increased, it is necessary to have a known previously emitted amount (often connected to a baseline date or year), against which to make a comparison over time. This is called the baseline.
Carbon biosequestration: The storage of carbon by plants, trees and other flora, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while they grow, release the oxygen, and store the carbon.
Carbon market: Transactions for the sale of emissions permits, reductions or offsets together comprise the ‘carbon market’. In fact, carbon dioxide is only one of several greenhouse gases that can be ‘traded’. Moreover, there is not a single, unified international market for emissions reduction purchases. Rather, there are various markets in operation around the world, which can be classified as either ‘regulated’ or ‘voluntary’ markets and which interact with one another in different ways.
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): A facility created under the Kyoto Protocol, which allow as Annex I countries to finance emissions reducing projects in developing countries that are party to the Kyoto Protocol then to use the resulting ‘certified emissions reductions’ (‘CERs’) to offset their own emissions.
Conference of the Parties (COP): The term used to describe the regular meeting of state parties to a UN Convention, such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change or the Convention on Biological Diversity. This is the body with authority to take decisions under the Convention.
Conference of the Parties acting as the Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP): This is the meeting of state parties under a Protocol to a Convention (such as the Kyoto Protocol) and the body with authority to take decisions under the Protocol.
Controlled (or ‘prescribed’) burning: Intentional and controlled fires in bushland or forest designed to prevent more intensive, uncontrolled forest or bushfires.
Climate change: This term refers to the collection of impacts on the earth’s natural climate system that are resulting from global warming (see below). This includes rainfall patterns and ocean levels, the direction and speed of wind and ocean currents, seasonal cycles, and the likelihood and intensity of climatic disasters such as droughts, storms and floods (IPCC, 2007).
Deforestation: The conversion of forested land to non-forested land.
Emissions trading (or ‘carbon trading’): A sale and purchase of: ‘permits’ or ‘allowances’ to emit greenhouse gases; or ‘certificates’ that prove a certain reduction in emissions from a particular activity beyond what would otherwise have been the case (i.e. ‘business as usual’ emissions); or certificates that indicate a certain amount of actual emissions have been ‘offset’ somewhere else, through for example, carbon sequestration.
Energy efficiency: Reducing the amount of energy used to operate a product or to carry out a process, without reducing the quality or level of service, or making the actual generation of electricity more efficient.
Forest degradation: Occurs when the structure or function of a forest is negatively affected, reducing the ability of the forest to provide services or products (FAO, 2004).
Fossil fuels: Gas, coal, oil and oil-derived products such as diesel. Fossil fuels are combusted to create electricity, to provide heating, to power all forms of transportation and to power industrial processes, like mining and manufacturing activities.
Global warming: As the human-induced emission of greenhouse gases has increased, so has the concentration of these gases in the atmosphere, which is raising the earth’s temperature.
Greenhouse effect: The process by which greenhouse gases in the earth’s lower atmosphere (see below) absorb infrared radiation from the sun, reflect some of it back into space and emit some of it towards the earth. This natural process provides for relatively stable and mild temperatures on earth and in the atmosphere.
Greenhouse gases (GHGs): A group of gases in the atmosphere that absorb infrared radiation. They appear in greatest proportions in the earth’s lower atmosphere. These gases include water vapour, ozone, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride.
Joint Implementation: A facility created under the Kyoto Protocol, which allows an Annex I party to fund and/or run a project to reduce emissions in another Annex I party. The funding country can then apply the emissions reductions generated to help it to meet its own emissions target under the Kyoto Protocol.
Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change: a subsidiary agreement to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, this agreement was concluded in December 1997 but did not ‘enter into force’ (become legally binding on its parties) until February 2002. This Protocol is binding under international law on those countries that are a ‘party’ to it.
Land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF): This is an identified category of activities that can contribute to both greenhouse gas emissions and emissions removals. The other main categories are energy-related emissions (both production and consumption), agriculture and waste-related activities.
Mitigation: Seeking to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by human-related activities. Such actions might include reducing our use of fossil fuels and changing the way we use land – such as by reducing our rate of land clearing and deforestation, and increasing our rate of reforestation.
Non-Annex I parties: Developing countries not listed in Annex I to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. These countries do not have binding emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
Parties: The individual members of an agreement, such as the member states to an international law agreement.
Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI): a subsidiary body to the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol, which considers and advises the parties on issues relating to the implementation of the Convention and Kyoto Protocol.
Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA): a subsidiary body to the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol, which considers and advises the parties on scientific and technological issues related to the Convention and Kyoto Protocol.
Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD)
Reforestation: the reestablishment or regeneration of a forest.
Removals: This is the opposite of an emission of greenhouse gas and occurs when greenhouse gases are removed from the atmosphere, for example, by trees during the process of photosynthesis.
Renewable energy: This form of energy can be used to provide electricity, heating or fuel for transportation similar to the way we use fossil fuels for these purposes. Unlike oil, gas and coal, renewable energy sources are not finite. Key sources include wood, waste decomposition, geothermal activity, wind and solar energy. The use of renewable sources for generating energy usually involves lower emissions of greenhouse gases than the use of fossil fuels does.
Sinks: Reservoirs or locations that sequester or store a greater amount of carbon dioxide than they release. Major carbon sinks include forests and oceans.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): An international agreement, which was reached in 1992 and entered into force in 1993, the UNFCCC provides a framework for international cooperation on climate change.
