Climate Key Words
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
What is sustainability?
The transmission of pollutants from one national jurisdiction to another.
What is transboundary pollution?
Established in 1989 by the UN to consolidate information about climate change.
What is the IPCC?
Providing false or misleading information that presents a business or its products as being environmentally friendly
What is Greenwashing?
A process that aims to improve a community's economic well-being and quality of life.
What is economic development?
Environmental impact of greenhouse gases measured in units of carbon dioxide that are emitted by human activity
What is carbon footprint?
Long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels and other human activity.
What is climate change?
This 1998 global agreement distinguished between developed and developing countries and aimed to reduce emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by 2012
What is the Kyoto Protocol?
A category of investment funds that targets climate friendly and socially oriented companies.
What are ESG funds?
Gases present in the Earth's atmosphere that trap heat, primarily by absorbing infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface, thus warming the planet
What are greenhouse gases?
The balance between the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) that's produced and the amount that's removed from the atmosphere.
What is net zero?
The unusually rapid increase in Earth's average surface temperature over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released as people burn fossil fuels.
What is global warming?
Ratified by 184 countries and excluding any enforcement mechanism, this 2016 agreement committed to not exceeding 1.5 degrees warmer than the historical average.
What is the Paris Accords?
Approach that designs products and components that can be reused, disassembled, and upgraded to minimize waste
What is a circular economy?
US, China, India, Brazil, Russia EU
Top six contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in 2023
Non-renewable energy sources that are formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago.
What are fossil fuels?
The deliberate clearing or thinning of forests by humans for other uses, such as agriculture, mining, urbanization, or to obtain wood.
What is deforestation?
A 2022 law that creates tax incentives for clean energy and manufacturing
What is the Inflation Reduction Act?
An accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental and economic.
What is the triple bottom line?
Somalia, Syria, DRC, Afghanistan, Yemen, Chad
What are the top six countries most at risk of climate catastrophe?
The process by which large numbers of people become permanently concentrated in relatively small areas, forming cities.
What is urbanization?
The variety of life on Earth, including the number of species, their genetic variation, and how they interact within ecosystems.
What is biodiversity?
An international treaty that aims to phase out the production and use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are harmful chemicals that deplete the Earth's ozone layer
What is the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer?
A market-based system that involves buying and selling credits to limit the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that can be emitted into the atmosphere
What is carbon trading?
A solo long-distance yachtswoman who held the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe.
Who is Ellen MacArthur?