Cause and Effect | A climate crisis glossary to keep handy

In the weeks leading up to COP28, which begins November 30, here are the terms to acquaint yourself with

In the weeks leading up to the COP28 summit that begins on November 30, the headlines will be heavily peppered with terms like Paris Goals, Loss and Damage, Geo-engineering, and NDCs. Here is a glossary of terms that might help in better understanding the catastrophic path the world is on.

FILE PHOTO: 'Cop28 UAE' logo is displayed on the screen during the opening ceremony of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) under the theme of 'United on Climate Action Toward COP28', in Abu Dhabi, UAE, January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Rula Rouhana/File Photo(REUTERS)

COP

The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), made up of representatives from each country that signed the Paris Agreement in 2015 and which meets every year.

PARIS AGREEMENT

A successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate treaty that expired in 2020, the Paris Agreement in December 2015 aimed to limit the rise in the average global surface temperature. Countries that signed the accord set national pledges to reduce humanity's effect on the climate.

1.5 DEGREES

The Paris Agreement legally bound signatories to limit greenhouse gas emissions to keep the temperature rise "well below" 2.0 degrees Celsius this century. The countries also promised to "pursue efforts" to keep the rise below 1.5C, which scientists say would help to avert some of the most catastrophic effects.

GLASGOW PACT

Reached at the 2021 UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, the Glasgow Pact marked the first time a climate agreement mentioned the goal of reducing fossil fuel use. The pact marked a breakthrough in efforts to resolve rules guiding the international trade of carbon markets to offset emissions. With time running out for steep emissions cuts, the pact also urges nations to come up with more ambitious climate plans.

GREENHOUSE GASES

The gases emitted as a result of the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, diesel, gasoline or petrol, kerosene and natural gas, are known as greenhouse gases (GHG) and are the main culprit for the warming of the earth as they trap the heat from the Sun. While the focus as a GHG remains on carbon dioxide, others include methane, nitrous oxide, and even water vapour.

NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS

NDCs are the pledges that each country makes to reduce its emissions and adapt to climate change from 2020 onward. Countries have to update and expand their NDCs every five years. All signatories have submitted new pledges for Glasgow. While they are nowhere near enough, the main aim of COP is to use the negotiation process to increase them.

‘JUST TRANSITION’

The term is used to describe a shift to a low-carbon economy that keeps the social and economic disruption of moving away from fossil fuels to a minimum while maximising the benefits for workers, communities and consumers.

CLIMATE FINANCE

Richer countries agreed in 2009 to contribute $100 billion together each year by 2020 to help poorer countries adapt their economies and lessen the impact of rising seas, or more severe and frequent storms and droughts. In 2015, they agreed to extend this goal through to 2025, but the target has yet to be met.

CBDR

The principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" (CBDR), was enshrined in the Kyoto Protocol. It says that developed countries, which produced more emissions in the past as they built their economies, should take the lead in fighting climate change. The Paris Agreement sought to bind major rapidly developing economies such as China and Brazil into the global effort to cut emissions, adding the words "in light of different national circumstances". It does not, however, require them to make any immediate pledges to cut their emissions.

'LOSS AND DAMAGE'

Although richer countries have agreed to provide them with funding to address the impact of climate change, poorer countries continue to press for an agreed basis to assess liability for the losses and damage caused by climate change and calculate compensation.

EL NINO

The term El Niño (Spanish for 'the little boy') refers to a warming of the ocean surface, or above-average sea surface temperatures, in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. The low-level surface winds, which normally blow from east to west along the equator (“easterly winds”) instead weaken or, in some cases, start blowing in the other direction (from west to east or “westerly winds”). El Niño recurs irregularly, from two years to a decade, and no two events are exactly alike. El Niño events can disrupt normal weather patterns globally but tend to result in below-average monsoons in India. The real impact is witnessed a year after the phenomenon sets in.

TIPPING POINTS

Tipping points are conditions or thresholds beyond which changes in the climate system become self-perpetuating and can lead to abrupt and irreversible impacts. Over the years, scientists have identified 16 tipping points that would take effect on timescales varying from a few years to centuries.

SAFE AND JUST BOUNDARIES

Scientists have identified eight crucial earth systems and the guardrails to prevent them from collapsing in order to maintain a “safe and just” planet for all living beings. The researchers quantified these boundaries for climate, biodiversity, freshwater and different kinds of pollution. Ironically, most have been breached.

IPCC

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a body of the United Nations that prepares decadal, comprehensive Assessment Reports about the state of scientific, technical and socio-economic knowledge on climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for reducing the rate at which climate change is taking place.

GEO-ENGINEERING

Geo-engineering is the large-scale, intentional alteration in systems that control the earth’s climate, that developed nations and some oil companies are pushing as the save-all method to curb the effects of climate change. The effects, however, remain largely in theory.

CARBON CAPTURE

CCUS involves the capture of CO2, generally from large point sources like power generation or industrial facilities that use either fossil fuels or biomass as fuel. If not being used on-site, the captured CO2 is compressed and transported by pipeline, ship, rail or truck to be used in a range of applications, or injected into deep geological formations such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs or saline aquifers.