Adaptation: Adjustments in ecological, social, or economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic changes to minimize harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.

Additionality: A criterion often used in assessing the validity of a carbon offset project. It means that the carbon savings wouldn’t have occurred without the carbon offset project.

Afforestation: The process of planting trees on lands that have not been forested for a considerable amount of time.

Allowance: A permit issued by a governing body, giving an entity the right to emit a set quantity of greenhouse gasses.

Annex I Countries: Countries listed in Annex I to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that have committed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. These are mainly the industrialized countries.

Baseline: The amount of carbon or greenhouse gasses that would have been emitted under a business-as-usual scenario, against which reductions can be measured.

Benchmarking: Setting a standard by which similar items can be compared, often used to compare carbon emissions of similar companies or industries.

Biochar: Charcoal that is added to soil to enhance its fertility and sequester carbon. It is produced by pyrolysis of biomass.

Biogenic Carbon: Carbon that is sequestered by living organisms, especially plants.

Cap-and-Trade: A system in which a limit (cap) is set on the total amount of greenhouse gasses that can be emitted. Companies or other entities receive or buy emission allowances, and they can profit from selling allowances if they emit less than their allowed quota.

Carbon Accounting: The process of measuring and tracking an organization’s carbon emissions over time.

Carbon Audit: An assessment or analysis to determine carbon emission sources within a specified boundary.

Carbon Broker: A person or entity that acts as an intermediary between carbon credit buyers and sellers.

Carbon Budget: The maximum amount of carbon dioxide emissions permitted over a period of time to keep global temperature rises within a particular target.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS): The process of capturing carbon dioxide emissions at the source (like power plants) and storing it underground or using it in some way, rather than releasing it into the atmosphere.

Carbon Credits: A generic term for any tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount of a different greenhouse gas.

Carbon Cycle: The series of processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment, involving the absorption and release of carbon in living organisms.

Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP): An organization that supports companies and cities to disclose the environmental impact of major corporations.

Carbon Footprint: The total amount of greenhouse gasses produced directly and indirectly to support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Carbon Intensity: The amount of carbon (CO2e) emitted per unit of another metric, like GDP, kWh of electricity, or miles traveled.

Carbon Neutral: Achieving a net-zero carbon footprint by balancing emitted CO2 with an equivalent amount offset.

Carbon Neutral Design: Designing products, buildings, or processes in a way that their carbon footprint is minimized or offset entirely.

Carbon Offsets: A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, like planting trees or investing in renewable energy projects, used to compensate for emissions produced elsewhere.

Carbon Pool: Reservoirs or systems that have the capacity to store or release carbon. Examples include the forest, soil, or atmosphere carbon pools.

Carbon Positive: Going beyond carbon neutrality by removing additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Carbon Price: The cost assigned to carbon emissions to encourage reducing the global carbon footprint. It’s typically presented as a per ton of CO2 equivalent.

Carbon Pricing: Charging those who emit carbon dioxide for their emissions, often seen in forms such as a carbon tax or cap-and-trade systems.

Carbon Sequestration: The long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to either mitigate or defer global warming and avoid dangerous climate change.

Carbon Sink: Any process, activity, or mechanism that removes a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. Forests and oceans are examples of natural carbon sinks.

Carbon Tax: A tax on the carbon content of fossil fuels.

Carbon Trading: The process of buying and selling carbon credits on international markets.

Certification Standard: An established set of criteria and processes to ensure the carbon offset project is genuine and delivers real, measurable, and long-term carbon savings, e.g., the Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standard.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): A mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol allowing developed countries to invest in emission reduction projects in developing countries as a way to meet their emission reduction targets.

Climate Mitigation: Efforts to reduce or prevent the emission of greenhouse gasses.

Co-benefits: Additional benefits beyond the primary benefit of a project, such as job creation, biodiversity conservation, or improved air quality resulting from a carbon offset project.

Compliance Market: The market for trading carbon credits to comply with caps on carbon dioxide emissions, particularly for businesses and governments.

Emission Factors: Average emission rates of particular pollutants from specific sources or activities.

Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA): A contract between the buyer and seller of carbon credits, where the seller commits to deliver a specified number of carbon credits at an agreed price.

Externality: An economic term referring to a side effect or consequence of an industrial or commercial activity that affects other parties and isn’t reflected in the cost of the goods or services involved.

Geoengineering: Large-scale interventions in the Earth’s climate system, primarily to counteract global warming.

Greenwashing: A deceptive marketing practice where a company exaggerates or falsely claims to be environmentally friendly.

Joint Implementation (JI): A mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol that allows a developed country to receive emissions reduction units when it helps finance projects that reduce net emissions in another developed country.

Kyoto Protocol: An international treaty that commits its parties to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses.

Leakage: Occurs when a carbon reduction activity in one location leads to an increase in emissions somewhere else, undermining the net benefits of the reduction.

LULUCF (Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry): A sector under the Kyoto Protocol that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use.

Methane Recovery: Capturing methane (a potent greenhouse gas) from sources like landfills or livestock and using it for energy or other purposes.

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): Commitments made by countries under the Paris Agreement to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Net-Zero Emissions: Achieving a balance between the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere.

Non-Annex I Countries: Countries not listed in Annex I of the UNFCCC, primarily developing countries, which have no obligation to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.

Offset: A unit of CO2-equivalent emissions reduced, removed, or sequestered to compensate for emissions occurring elsewhere.

Offset Provider: An organization or company that supplies carbon offsets usually by investing in and managing projects that reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions.

Paris Agreement: A global treaty within the UNFCCC framework that commits nations to undertake efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.

Permanence: Refers to the lasting nature of carbon reductions. For example, ensuring that trees planted for carbon offsetting won’t be cut down in the future.

REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation): A set of steps designed to use market/financial incentives to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gasses from deforestation and forest degradation.

Reforestation: The process of replanting trees on deforested lands.

Registries: Online platforms that track the issuance, transfer, and retirement of carbon credits, ensuring transparency and avoiding double-counting.

Retirement: When a carbon credit is used to offset an emission, it’s “retired” to ensure it’s not double-counted.

Validation: The process of checking and confirming the design of a carbon offset project.

Verification: The process of independent checking of carbon offset projects to ensure they are delivering the carbon reductions claimed.

Voluntary Emission Reduction (VER): A type of carbon offset exchanged in the voluntary or over-the-counter market for carbon credits.