Climate change
Are gases that trap heat from the sun in our planet’s atmosphere, keeping it warm.
Greenhouse gases
Happen when one change in the climate triggers further changes, in a chain reaction that reinforces itself as time goes on.
Feedback loops
Is a measure of the greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere by a particular person, organization, product, or activity.
Carbon footprint
Which is intergenerational and community-based, is a great source of meaningful climate solutions that can advance mitigation, enhance adaptation, and build resilience.
Indigenous knowledge
Is energy derived from natural sources that are constantly being replenished, such as wind, sunlight, the flow of moving water, and geothermal heat.
Renewable energy
Is the average of weather patterns in a specific area over a longer period of time, usually 30 or more years, that represents the overall state of the climate system.
Climate
Is a threshold after which certain changes caused by global warming and climate change become irreversible, even if future interventions are successful in driving down average global temperatures.
Tipping point
Means putting equity and human rights at the core of decision-making and action on climate change.
Climate justice
Refers to evaluating, managing, and reducing the risks to peace and stability brought on by the climate crisis.
Climate security
Is any process, activity, or mechanism that absorbs more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it releases.
Carbon sink
Refers to atmospheric conditions at a particular time in a particular location, including temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, wind, and visibility.
Weather
Refers to the period during which warming will have increased past 1.5° C, before falling back down.
Climate overshoot
Refers to the serious problems that are being caused, or are likely to be caused, by changes in the planet’s climate, including weather extremes and hazards, ocean acidification and sea-level rise, loss of biodiversity, food and water insecurity, health risks, economic disruption, displacement, and even violent conflict.
Climate crisis
Refers to financial resources and instruments that are used to support action on climate change.
Climate finance
Is a way of farming that nurtures and restores soil health, and therefore reduces water use, prevents land degradation, and promotes biodiversity.
Regenerative agriculture
Is an increase in the Earth’s average surface temperature that occurs when the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increases.
Global warming
Refers to any action taken by governments, businesses, or people to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions, or to enhance carbon sinks that remove these gases from the atmosphere.
Mitigation
Is the capacity of a community or environment to anticipate and manage climate impacts, minimize their damage, and recover and transform as needed after the initial shock.
Resilience
Requires us to ensure that carbon dioxide emissions from human activity are balanced by human efforts to remove carbon dioxide emissions thereby stopping further increases in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Net zero
Is the process of planting trees in areas that have not been forested in recent history.
Afforestation
Refers to the long-term changes in the Earth’s climate that are warming the atmosphere, ocean and land.
Climate change
Refers to actions that help reduce vulnerability to the current or expected impacts of climate change like weather extremes and hazards, sea-level rise, biodiversity loss, or food and water insecurity.
Adaptation
Are actions to protect, conserve, restore, and sustainably use and manage ecosystems to support climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, preserve biodiversity, and enable sustainable livelihoods.
Nature-based solutions
Means reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that a society produces, as well as increasing the amount that is being absorbed.
Decarbonization
Refers to models of production and consumption that minimize waste and reduce pollution, promote sustainable uses of natural resources, and help regenerate nature.
Circular economy