Adaptation: Refers to actions required to cope with the changes being brought about by global warming. For example, introducing a new variety of crop that can withstand, or give a better yield, in higher temperatures is an adaptation process.
Anthropogenic emissions: Emissions caused as a result of human activity.
Bali Action Plan: Adopted at the 13th meeting of the Conference of Parties at Bali, Indonesia, in 2007, the plan spelt out four areas where accelerated action was required to deal with climate change:
* Enhanced mitigation by rich countries. Developing countries to come up with NAMAs, or nationally appropriate mitigation actions, that would be non-binding and without targets
* Adaptation by developing and least developed countries (LDCs)
* Transfer of technology from rich countries to developing nations and LDCs
* A funding architecture to finance the costs of adaptation and mitigation. Funds to come from the rich countries.
CoP: The Conference of Parties is an annual meet. The first such conference or CoP1 was held in Berlin in 1995?the Copenhagen meet is the 15th.
CDM: The Clean Development Mechanism offers an alternative way to rich countries to meet their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. These countries are allowed to fund clean projects in developing countries and the emissions savings accruing from these projects can be counted towards their own target. For example, an industry in India can decide to invest in highly efficient machinery that will help reduce its emissions below the acceptable standard. The industry therefore can claim to have saved some emissions and earn what is known as carbon credits. A country like Germany, for example, is then eligible to make a monetary payment to the Indian industry to buy those carbon credits and count it as its own emission reduction.
Carbon Sink/Carbon Sequestration: If accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the problem, scientists are exploring ways to absorb the gas from the atmosphere and store it in some place. It is an effort to emulate the natural process of photosynthesis in trees which absorb CO2. The effort to create a man-made carbon sink, called carbon sequestration, has not been very successful till now.
Carbon intensity or emission intensity: It is the carbon emissions of a country per unit of its GDP. In mathematical terms, total carbon emissions in a year, divided by the country?s GDP is equal to the carbon intensity. It is generally measured in tonnes of CO2 emissions per $1000 dollars of GDP.
Energy intensity: This is the energy consumption per unit of GDP, or the energy that goes into producing one unit of GDP. It is generally measured in kg of oil equivalent per dollar of GDP.
GHGs or greenhouse gases: The six gases blamed for causing global warming: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride. The first two are the biggest culprits.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: A UN-instituted body set up in 1998 to study the science behind climate change. Most of what we know about climate change is based on the conclusions of IPCC reports.
Kyoto Protocol: Born at the UN climate meet in Kyoto in 1997, it introduced legally binding emission targets on rich countries. These countries legally committed themselves to reduce their collective emissions by 5.2% from the 1990 levels by 2012.
Mitigation: It refers to reduction of greenhouse gases.
Per capita principle: Enshrined in the UNFCCC, it says that every person in the world should have an equal carbon space in the atmosphere, or that an equal per capita emission in every country was the desired goal.
