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# Taxonomy

Climate Change (erstwhile popularly known as global warming) is the increase in global average temperature and its effects on Earth’s climate. The current rise in global average temperature is more rapid than previous changes. Fossil fuel use, deforestation, and some agricultural and industrial practices increase greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide and methane.

In my effort to help fight Climate Change, I came across a lot of term and definition that I had to learn along the way. Here is my effort to record the terms and taxonomy of Climate Change.

0-9 – A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H – I – J – K – L – M – N – O – P – Q – R – S – T – U – V – W – X – Y – Z

# 0-9

# A

  • ABACUS from Amazon is a Verified Carbon Unit (VCU), which goes above and beyond Verra’s methodology and will focus on ensuring additionality, leakage, and durability standards in the market. That group comprises Amazon research scientists and experts at the University of California Berkeley, The Nature Conservancy, and other organizations. The new carbon credit label will focus on two project types – agroforestry and reforestation.

# B

  • Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BiCRS) is a process that removes CO₂ from the air through biomass and stores it.

# C

  • CORSIA is the first global market-based measure for any sector and represents a cooperative approach that moves away from a “patchwork” of national or regional regulatory initiatives. It offers a harmonized way to reduce emissions from international aviation, minimizing market distortion, while respecting the special circumstances and respective capabilities of ICAO Member States.

# D

# E

# F

# G

  • Global Warming Potential (GWP) is the heat absorbed by any greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, as a multiple of the heat that would be absorbed by the same mass of carbon dioxide (CO2). GWP is 1 for CO2. For other gases it depends on the gas and the time frame. Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e or CO2eq or CO2-e) is calculated from GWP. For any gas, it is the mass of CO2 that would warm the earth as much as the mass of that gas. Thus it provides a common scale for measuring the climate effects of different gases. It is calculated as GWP times mass of the other gas.
    • A more commonly used term is tCO2e defined as the “Tonnes of CO2 equivalent”. It is a measure for describing how much global warming a given type and amount of greenhouse gas may cause, using the functionally equivalent amount or concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) as the reference. For example, methane is a greenhouse gas that has a stronger effect on climate change than CO2. To be able to compare it with the effect of CO2, it is converted into CO2e. Like this, it is possible to say that that 1t of methane has the same effect on climate change as 25t of CO2.

# H

# I

# J

# K

# L

# M

# N

  • NBS or Nature-Based Solutions are actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously benefiting people and nature.
  • Net-Zero aka Carbon Neutrality - cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere, by oceans and forests for instance. The global temperature increase needs to be limited to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. To keep global warming to no more than 1.5°C, emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

# O

# P

# Q

# R

# S

  • Scopes (Emissions) are standards set by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
    • Scope 1 refers to the direct emissions from company activities - this may include fuel combustion, industrial process emissions, fugitive emissions, agriculture and other direct emissions from within company boundaries.
    • Scope 2 captures all of the indirect emissions a company creates, from the energy purchased used for heating, cooling, and general electricity
    • Scope 3 emissions are the most complex of the categories – it involves measuring a company’s indirect upstream and downstream emissions

# T

# U

# V

  • Verification for Carbon Market Credits
    • VEERA sets the world’s leading standards for climate action and sustainable development.
    • Plan Vivo
    • The Gold Standard
    • The American Carbon Registry
    • Climate Action Reserve
    • The Verified Carbon Standard Program

# W

# X

# Y

# Z