Climate Change Glossary

Compiled by: Kaavya Pradeep Kumar, IIHS Word Lab Chandni Singh and Ritwika Basu, IIHS Practice Preedip Balaji, IIHS Library

Design & Layout: IIHS Design Team

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24943/CCGEMTHK02.2021

KG Link: https://iihs.co.in/knowledge-gateway/climate-change-glossary/

Process followed

1. The team compiled the list of glossary terms, based on the IPCC special report (IPCC, 2012), and IPCC Assessment report 5, Working Groups I, II and III reports (IPCC, 2013; IPCC, 2014; and a special report (IPCC, 2018). 2. The terms identified were prioritised based on their importance for teaching, and hence categorised as high, medium and low. This is a comprehensive glossary that is more than sufficient for learners who are newly acquainted with the subject. 3. Certain terms from the IPCC glossaries were excluded mainly because of how much their definitions overlapped with others in the glossary. For e.g., ‘climate extreme’ was not included in the final list because the term ‘extreme weather’ was already in place. It is a more commonly used term and hence more applicable to learners. 4. The IPCC list also covered generic terms such as ‘chronology’ and ‘coping’; the definitions for which had already been included in other glossaries such as the one on disaster risk and resilience. To reduce overlap, we excluded those as well. 5. The level of specificity and frequency of use of some terms also played a factor in their exclusion. While the final list covers a vast majority of definitions provided by the IPCC, terms such as ‘adaptation options’, ‘adaptation management’ were dropped in favour of more commonly-used ones such as ‘adaptation limit’, ‘adaptation needs’. 6. We also checked the Synthesis Report (IPCC, 2014), which had a lot of definitions that were missing in the sources mentioned in point 1, including fundamental climate science terms such as ‘ENSO’, ‘afforestation’, ‘albedo’, ‘ocean acidification’ and ‘radiative forcing’. Additionally, common policy terms such as ‘climate finance’, ‘fuel poverty’, ‘REDD+’ and ‘energy access’ were also drawn from the 2014 Synthesis Report. 7. In addition to the IPCC, we also skimmed through other public platforms such as the BBC and the Climate Reality Project, as well as other educational institutions’ compilations (UC Davis) to double-check if there were some basic terms that the UN sources did not have. Terms such as the ‘UNFCCC’, the ‘IPCC’ itself, ‘climate science’ and ‘weather’ were added as a result. References

BBC. (2014, April 13). glossary. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-11833685

IPCC, 2012: Glossary of terms. In: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation [Field, C.B., V. Barros, T.F. Stocker, D. Qin, D.J. Dokken, K.L. Ebi, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, G.-K. Plattner, S.K. Allen, M. Tignor, and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, and New York, NY, USA, pp. 555-564.

IPCC, 2013: Annex III: Glossary [Planton, S. (ed.)]. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1447- 1465.

Allwood J. M., V. Bosetti, N. K. Dubash, L. Gómez-Echeverri, and C. von Stechow, 2014: Glossary. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Edenhofer, O., R. Pichs-Madruga, Y. Sokona, E. Farahani, S. Kadner, K. Seyboth, A. Adler, I. Baum, S. Brunner, P. Eickemeier, B. Kriemann, J. Savolainen, S. Schlömer, C. von Stechow, T. Zwickel and J.C. Minx (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1249-1279.

IPCC, 2018: Annex I: Glossary [Matthews, J.B.R. (ed.)]. In: Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, H.-O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J.B.R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T. Waterfield (eds.)]. World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 541-562.

IPCC, 2014: Annex II: Glossary [Mach, K.J., S. Planton and C. von Stechow (eds.)]. In: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 117-130.

IPCC, 2014: Annex II: Glossary [Agard, J., E.L.F. Schipper, J. Birkmann, M. Campos, C. Dubeux, Y. Nojiri, L. Olsson, B. Osman-Elasha, M. Pelling, M.J. Prather, M.G. Rivera-Ferre, O.C. Ruppel, A. Sallenger, K.R. Smith, A.L. St. Clair, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, and T.E. Bilir (eds.)]. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part B: Regional Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Barros, V.R., C.B. Field, D.J. Dokken, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L. White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1757-1776.

UC Davis Science & Climate. (2020, July 21). Climate change terms and definitions. https://climatechange. ucdavis.edu/science/climate-change-definitions/

UNFCCC. (2020). Glossary of climate change acronyms and terms https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-convention/glossary-of-climate-change-acronyms-and-termss A A

Adaptation Deficit The gap between the current state of a system and a state that minimizes adverse impacts from existing climate conditions A and variability. AR5 WG2 Adaptation Needs The circumstances requiring action to Abrupt Climate Change ensure safety of populations and security of assets in response to climate impacts. A large-scale change in the climate system that takes place over a few decades or less, AR5 WG2 persists (or is anticipated to persist) for at Adaptation Constraint least a few decades and causes substantial disruptions in human and natural Factors that make it harder to plan and systems. implement adaptation actions or that restrict options AR5 WG1 AR5 WG2 Adaptation Adaptation Limit The process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. The point at which an actor’s objectives In human systems, adaptation seeks (or system needs) cannot be secured from to moderate or avoid harm or exploit intolerable risks through adaptive actions. beneficial opportunities. In some natural a) Hard adaptation limit: No adaptive systems, human intervention may facilitate actions are possible to avoid intolerable adjustment to expected climate and its risks. effects. b) Soft adaptation limit: Options are a) Incremental Adaptation: Adaptation currently not available to avoid intolerable actions where the central aim is to maintain risks through adaptive action. the essence and integrity of a system or AR5 WG2 process at a given scale. b) Transformational Adaptation: Adaptation Adaptive Governance that changes the fundamental attributes of An emerging term in literature for a system in response to climate change and the evolution of formal and informal its effects. institutions of governance that prioritize AR5 WG2 social learning in planning, implementation and evaluation of policy through iterative Adaptation Assessment social learning to steer the use and The practice of identifying options to adapt protection of natural resources, ecosystem to climate change and evaluating them in services and common pool natural terms of criteria such as availability, ben- resources, particularly in situations of efits,costs, effectiveness, efficiency, and complexity and uncertainty. feasibility. SR1.5 AR5 WG2 Aerosol Adaptive Capacity A suspension of airborne solid or liquid The ability of systems, institutions, humans, particles, with a typical size between a few and other organisms to adjust to potential nanometres and 10 μm that reside in the damage, to take advantage of opportuni- atmosphere for at least several hours. ties, or to respond to consequences. The term aerosol, which includes both the particles and the suspending gas, is often AR5 WG2 A A

used in this report in its plural form to extent of forming geological deposits with mean aerosol particles. Aerosols may be a signature that is distinct from those of of either natural or anthropogenic origin. the Holocene, and which will remain in the Aerosols may influence climate in several geological record. ways: through both interactions that scatter SR1.5 and/or absorb radiation and through interactions with cloud microphysics and Anthropogenic other cloud properties, or upon deposition Resulting from or produced by human on snow- or ice-covered surfaces thereby activities. altering their albedo and contributing to climate feedback. SR1.5 SR1.5 Anthropogenic Emissions Afforestation Emissions of greenhouse gases, greenhouse gas precursors, and aerosols Planting of new forests on lands that caused by human activities. These historically have not contained forests. activities include the burning of fossil AR5 SYR fuels, deforestation, land use changes, livestock production, fertilization, waste Air Pollution management, and industrial processes. Degradation of air quality with negative AR5 WG2 effects on human health or the natural or built environment due to the introduction, Anthropogenic Removals by natural processes or human activity, Anthropogenic removals refer to the into the atmosphere of substances withdrawal of GHGs from the atmosphere (gases, aerosols) which have a direct as a result of deliberate human activities. (primary pollutants) or indirect (secondary These include enhancing biological sinks pollutants) harmful effect. of CO2 and using chemical engineering to SR1.5 achieve long-term removal and storage. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) from Albedo industrial and energy-related sources, The fraction of solar radiation reflected by which alone does not remove CO2 in the a surface or object, often expressed as a atmosphere, can reduce atmospheric CO2 percentage. Snow-covered surfaces have if it is combined with bioenergy production a high albedo, the albedo of soils ranges (BECCS). from high to low and vegetation-covered SR1.5 surfaces and oceans have a low albedo. The Earth’s planetary albedo varies mainly through varying cloudiness, snow, ice, leaf area and land cover changes. AR5 SYR Anthropocene The ‘Anthropocene’ is a proposed new geological epoch resulting from significant human-driven changes to the structure and functioning of the Earth System, including the climate system. Originally proposed in the Earth System science community in 2000, the proposed new epoch is undergoing a formalization process within the geological community based on the stratigraphic evidence that human activities have changed the Earth System to the B C

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Baseline/Reference Cancún Agreements The baseline (or reference) is the state A set of decisions adopted at the 16th against which change is measured. A Session of the Conference of the Parties baseline period is the period relative (COP) to the United Nations Framework to which anomalies are computed. The Convention on Climate baseline concentration of a trace gas is that Change (UNFCCC), including the following, measured at a location not influenced by among others: the newly established Green local anthropogenic emissions. Climate Fund (GCF), a newly established AR5 WG1 technology mechanism, a process for advancing discussions on adaptation, a formal process for reporting mitigation Biodiversity commitments, a goal of limiting global mean surface temperature increase to 2°C The variability among living organisms from and an agreement on MRV—Measurement, terrestrial, marine and other ecosystems. Reporting and Verification for those Biodiversity includes variability at the ge- countries that receive international support netic, species and ecosystem levels for their mitigation efforts. AR5 SYR AR5 SYR Biofuel Capacity A fuel, generally in liquid form, produced The combination of all the strengths, from biomass. Biofuels currently include attributes, and resources available to bioethanol from sugarcane or maize, an individual, community, society, or biodiesel from canola or soybeans, and organization, which can be used to achieve black liquor from the paper-manufacturing established goals. process. SREX SR1.5 Capacity Building Business As Usual (BAU) The practice of enhancing the strengths Business as usual projections are based and attributes of, and resources available on the assumption that operating to, an individual, community, society, or practices and policies remain as they are organization to respond to change. at present. Although baseline scenarios could incorporate some specific features AR5 WG2 of BAU scenarios (e.g., a ban on a specific Carbon Cycle technology), BAU scenarios imply that no practices or policies other than the current The term used to describe the flow of ones are in place. carbon (in various forms, e.g., as (CO2)) through the atmosphere, AR5 WG2 ocean, terrestrial and marine biosphere and lithosphere. AR5 SYR C C

Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) Climate Change A process in which a relatively pure stream Climate change refers to a change in the of carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial state of the climate that can be identified and energy-related sources is separated (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes (captured), conditioned, compressed in the mean and/or the variability of and transported to a storage location for its properties, and that persists for an long-term isolation from the atmosphere. extended period, typically decades or Sometimes referred to as carbon capture longer. Climate change may be due to and storage. natural internal processes or external forcings such as modulations of the solar SR1.5 cycles, volcanic eruptions, and persistent Carbon Tax anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. Note A levy on the carbon content of fossil that the Framework Convention on fuels. Because virtually all of the carbon in Climate Change (UNFCCC), in its Article fossil fuels is ultimately emitted as carbon 1, defines climate change as: “a change dioxide (CO2), a carbon tax is equivalent to of climate which is attributed directly or an emission tax on CO2 emissions indirectly to human activity that alters the AR5 SYR composition of the global atmosphere Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable A mechanism through which investors time periods.”The UNFCCC thus makes (governments or companies) from a distinction between climate change developed countries may finance attributable to human activities altering greenhouse gas emission reduction or the atmospheric composition, and climate removal projects in developing countries, variability attributable to natural causes. and receive Certified Emission Reduction AR5 WG2 Units for doing so, which can be credited towards the commitments of the respective Climate Feedback developed countries. The CDM is intended An interaction in which a perturbation in to facilitate the two objectives of promoting one climate quantity causes a change in sustainable development in developing a second and the change in the second countries and of helping industrialized quantity ultimately leads to an additional countries reach their emissions change in the first. A negative feedback commitments in a cost-effective way. is one in which the initial perturbation AR5 WG2 is weakened by the changes it causes; Climate a positive feedback is one in which the initial perturbation is enhanced. The initial Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined perturbation can either be externally forced as the average weather, or more rigorously, or arise as part of internal variability. as the statistical description in terms SR1.5 of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period of time ranging Climate Finance from months to thousands or millions of There is no agreed definition of climate years. The classical period for averaging finance. The term climate finance is applied these variables is 30 years, as defined by both to the financial resources devoted to the World Meteorological Organization. addressing climate change globally and to The relevant quantities are most often financial flows to developing countries to surface variables such as temperature, assist them in addressing climate change. precipitation and wind. Climate in a wider The literature includes several concepts in sense is the state, including a statistical these categories. description, of the climate system. AR5 SYR SR1.5 C C

Climate Governance Climate Projection Purposeful mechanisms and measures A climate projection is the simulated aimed at steering social systems towards response of the climate system to preventing, mitigating, or adapting to the a scenario of future emission or risks posed by climate change (Jagers and concentration of greenhouse gases Stripple, 2003). and aerosols, generally derived using climate models. Climate projections are SR1.5 distinguished from climate predictions Climate Justice by their dependence on the emission/ concentration/radiative-forcing Justice that links development and scenario used, which is in turn based on human rights to achieve a human-centred assumptions concerning, for example, approach to addressing climate change, future socioeconomic and technological safeguarding the rights of the most developments that may or may not be vulnerable people and sharing the burdens realized. and benefits of climate change and its impacts equitably and fairly. AR5 WG2 SR1.5 Climate Scenario Climate Model A plausible and often simplified representation of the future climate, A numerical representation of the climate based on an internally consistent set system based on the physical, chemical and of climatological relationships that has biological properties of its components, been constructed for explicit use in their interactions and feedback processes, investigating the potential consequences and accounting for some of its known of anthropogenic climate change, often properties. The climate system can serving as input to impact models. Climate be represented by models of varying projections often serve as the raw material complexity; that is, for any one component for constructing climate scenarios, but or combination of components a spectrum climate scenarios usually require additional or hierarchy of models can be identified. information such as the observed current Climate models are applied as a research climate. tool to study and simulate the climate and for operational purposes, including AR5 WG2 monthly, seasonal and interannual climate Climate Science predictions SR1.5 Climate science is the study of relatively long-term weather conditions, typically Climate Resilient Development Pathways spanning decades to centuries but Trajectories that strengthen sustainable extending to geological timescales. The development and efforts to eradicate discipline is primarily concerned with poverty and reduce inequalities while atmospheric properties – for example promoting fair and cross-scalar adaptation temperature and humidity – and patterns to and resilience in a changing climate. of circulation, as well as interactions with They raise the ethics, equity and feasibility the ocean, the biosphere, and, over longer aspects of the deep societal transformation timescales, the geosphere. needed to drastically reduce emissions to Nature limit global warming (e.g., to 1.5°C) and achieve desirable and liveable futures and Climate Services well-being for all. Climate services refers to information and SR1.5 products that enhance users’ knowledge and understanding about the impacts of climate change and/or climate variability so as to aid decision-making of individuals and C C

organizations and enable preparedness and depend on local circumstances and and early climate change action. Products implementation practices, among other can include climate data products. factors. Co-benefits are also referred to as ancillary benefits. SR1.5 AR5 WG2 Climate Smart Agriculture Community-based Adaptation Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an ap- proach that helps to guide actions need- Local, community-driven adaptation. ed to transform and reorient agricultural Community-based adaptation focuses systems to effectively support development attention on empowering and promoting and ensure food security in a changing the adaptive capacity of communities. It climate. CSA aims to tackle three main ob- is an approach that takes context, culture, jectives: sustainably increasing agricultural knowledge, agency, and preferences of productivity and incomes, adapting and communities as strengths. building resilience to climate change, and AR5 WG2 reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions, where possible (FAO, 2018) Cultural Impacts SR1.5 Impacts on material and ecological aspects of culture and the lived experience of cul- Climate System ture, including dimensions such as identity, The climate system is the highly complex community cohesion and belonging, sense system consisting of five major compo- of place, worldview, values, perceptions, nents: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and tradition. Cultural impacts are closely the cryosphere, the lithosphere, and the related to ecological impacts, especially for biosphere, and the interactions among iconic and representational dimensions of them. The climate system evolves in time species and landscapes. Culture and cul- under the influence of its own internal tural practices frame the importance and dynamics and because of external forcings value of the impacts of change, shape the such as volcanic eruptions, solar variations, feasibility and acceptability of adaptation and anthropogenic forcings such as the options, and provide the skills and practices changing composition of the atmosphere that enable adaptation and land use change. AR5 WG2 AR5 WG2 Climate Variability Climate Target Climate variability refers to variations in Climate target refers to a temperature limit, the mean state and other statistics (such concentration level, or emissions reduc- as standard deviations, the occurrence tion goal used towards the aim of avoiding of extremes, etc.) of the climate on all dangerous anthropogenic interference with spatial and temporal scales beyond that of the climate system. For example, national individual weather events. Variability may climate targets may aim to reduce green- be due to natural internal processes within house gas emissions by a certain amount the climate system (internal variability), or over a given time horizon, for example to variations in natural or anthropogenic those under the . external forcing (external variability). SR1.5 SR1.5 Co-benefits Conference of the Parties (COP)

The positive effects that a policy or The supreme body of UN conventions, measure aimed at one objective might such as the United Nations Framework have on other objectives, irrespective of Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the net effect on overall social welfare. Co- comprising parties with a right to vote benefits are often subject to uncertainty C D

that have ratified or acceded to the consumption of fossil fuels. Relative convention. See also United Nations decoupling is where both grow but at Framework Convention on Climate Change different rates. Absolute decoupling is (UNFCCC). where economic growth happens but SR1.5 fossil fuels decline. Common but Differentiated Responsibili- SR1.5 ties (CBDR) Deforestation Common but Differentiated Responsibilities Conversion of forest to non-forest. and Respective Capabilities (CBDR–RC) is a key principle in the United Nations SR1.5 Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that recognises the different Disaster capabilities and differing responsibilities Severe alterations in the normal of individual countries in tacking climate functioning of a community or a society change. The convention states: “… the due to hazardous physical events global nature of climate change calls for the interacting with vulnerable social widest possible cooperation by all countries conditions, leading to widespread and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response, adverse human, material, economic, in accordance with their common but or environmental effects that require differentiated responsibilities and immediate emergency response to respective capabilities and their social and satisfy critical human needs and that economic conditions.” Since then the CBDR- may require external support for RC principle has guided the UN climate recovery. negotiations AR5 WG1 SR1.5 Disaster Management Social processes for designing, imple- menting, and evaluating strategies, policies, and measures that promote and improve disaster preparedness, re- sponse, and recovery practices at differ- D ent organizational and societal levels. AR5 WG2 Disaster Risk The likelihood over a specified time period of severe alterations in the normal functioning of a community or Decarbonisation a society due to hazardous physical The process by which countries or other events interacting with vulnerable entities aim to achieve a low carbon social conditions, leading to widespread economy, or by which individuals aim to adverse human, material, economic, reduce their consumption of carbon. or environmental effects that require immediate emergency response to SR1.5 satisfy critical human needs and that Decoupling may require external support for recovery Decoupling (in relation to climate change) is where economic growth SREX is no longer strongly associated with D E

Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Disruptive Innovation Processes for designing, implementing, Disruptive innovation is demand- and evaluating strategies, policies, and led technological change that leads measures to improve the understand- to significant system change and is ing of disaster risk, foster disaster risk characterized by strong exponential reduction and transfer, and promote growth. continuous improvement in disaster SR1.5 preparedness, response, and recovery practices, with the explicit purpose of increasing human security, well-being, quality of life, and sustainable develop- ment. SREX Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) E Denotes both a policy goal or objec- tive, and the strategic and instrumental measures employed for anticipating future disaster risk; reducing existing exposure, hazard, or vulnerability; and improving resilience. Early Warning System SREX The set of technical, financial and Drought institutional capacities needed to generate and disseminate timely A period of abnormally dry weather and meaningful warning information long enough to cause a serious to enable individuals, communities hydrological imbalance. Drought is a and organizations threatened by a relative term; therefore any discussion hazard to prepare to act promptly and in terms of precipitation deficit must appropriately to reduce the possibility refer to the particular precipitation- of harm or loss. Dependent upon related activity that is under discussion. context, EWS may draw upon scientific For example, shortage of precipitation and/or Indigenous knowledge. EWS during the growing season impinges on are also considered for ecological crop production or ecosystem function applications e.g., conservation, where in general (due to soil moisture drought, the organization itself is not threatened also termed agricultural drought) and by hazard but the ecosystem under during the runoff and percolation conservation is (an example is coral season primarily affects water supplies bleaching alerts), in agriculture (for (hydrological drought). Storage changes example, warnings of ground frost, in soil moisture and groundwater are hailstorms) and in fisheries (storm and also affected by increases in actual tsunami warnings). evapotranspiration in addition to reductions in precipitation. A period SR1.5 with an abnormal precipitation deficit Ecosystem is defined as a meteorological drought. A megadrought is a very lengthy and An ecosystem is a functional unit pervasive drought, lasting much longer consisting of living organisms, their than normal, usually a decade or more non-living environment, and the interactions within and between them. AR5 SYR E E

The components included in a given El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) ecosystem and its spatial boundaries The term El Niño was initially used to depend on the purpose for which the describe a warm-water current that ecosystem is defined: in some cases periodically flows along the coast they are relatively sharp, while in others of Ecuador and Peru, disrupting the they are diffuse. Ecosystem boundaries local fishery. It has since become can change over time. Ecosystems are identified with a basin-wide warming nested within other ecosystems, and of the tropical Pacific Ocean east of their scale can range from very small to the dateline. This oceanic event is the entire biosphere. In the current era, associated with a fluctuation of a global- most ecosystems either contain people scale tropical and subtropical surface as key organisms, or are influenced by pressure pattern called the Southern the effects of human activities in their Oscillation. This coupled atmosphere– environment. ocean phenomenon, with preferred AR5 WG1 time scales of two to about seven years, is known as the El Niño-Southern Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Oscillation (ENSO). It is often measured The use of biodiversity and ecosystem by the surface pressure anomaly services as part of an overall adaptation difference between Tahiti and Darwin strategy to help people to adapt to or the sea surface temperatures in the the adverse effects of climate change. central and eastern equatorial Pacific. Ecosystem-based adaptation uses During an ENSO event, the prevailing the range of opportunities for the trade winds weaken, reducing upwelling sustainable management, conservation, and altering ocean currents such and restoration of ecosystems to that the sea surface temperatures provide services that enable people to warm, further weakening the trade adapt to the impacts of climate change. winds. This event has a great impact It aims to maintain and increase the on the wind, resilience and reduce the vulnerability and precipitation patterns in the of ecosystems and people in the face of tropical Pacific. It has climatic effects the adverse effects of climate change. throughout the Pacific region and in AR5 WG2 many other parts of the world, through global teleconnections. The cold phase Ecosystem Services of ENSO is called La Niña. Ecological processes or functions AR5 SYR having monetary or non-monetary value to individuals or society at large. Emergent Risks These are frequently classified as (1) A risk that arises from the interaction supporting services such as productivity of phenomena in a complex system, or biodiversity maintenance, (2) for example, the risk caused when provisioning services such as food, geographic shifts in human population fiber, or fish, (3) regulating services in response to climate change lead to such as climate regulation or carbon increased vulnerability and exposure of sequestration, and (4) cultural services populations in the receiving region such as tourism or spiritual and aesthetic appreciation. AR5 WG2 AR5 WG2 E E

Emission Scenario change, while achieving sustainable A plausible representation of the development, eradicating poverty and future development of emissions reducing inequalities. of substances that are potentially SR1.5 radiatively active (e.g., greenhouse Energy Access gases, aerosols) based on a coherent and internally consistent set of Access to clean, reliable and affordable assumptions about driving forces (such energy services for cooking and as demographic and socioeconomic heating, lighting, communications and development, technological productive uses change) and their key relationships. AR5 SYR Concentration scenarios, derived from emission scenarios, are used as input Energy Security to a climate model to compute climate The goal of a given country, or the projections. global community as a whole, to AR5 WG2 maintain an adequate, stable and predictable energy supply. Measures Emissions Trading encompass safeguarding the sufficiency A market-based instrument aiming of energy resources to meet national at meeting a mitigation objective energy demand at competitive and in an efficient way. A cap on GHG stable prices and the resilience of the emissions is divided in tradeable energy supply; enabling development emission permits that are allocated and deployment of technologies; by a combination of auctioning and building sufficient infrastructure to handing out free allowances to entities generate, store and transmit energy within the jurisdiction of the trading supplies and ensuring enforceable scheme. Entities need to surrender contracts of delivery. emission permits equal to the amount AR5 SYR of their emissions (e.g., tonnes of CO2). An entity may sell excess permits Equality to entities that can avoid the same A principle that ascribes equal worth amount of emissions in a cheaper way. to all human beings, including equal Trading schemes may occur at the intra- opportunities, rights, and obligations, company, domestic, or international irrespective of origins. level (e.g., the flexibility mechanisms Inequality: Uneven opportunities and under the Kyoto Protocol and the EU- social positions, and processes of ETS) and may apply to carbon dioxide discrimination within a group or society, (CO2), other greenhouse gases (GHGs), based on gender, class, ethnicity, age, or other substances. and (dis) ability, often produced by SR1.5 uneven development. Income inequality refers to gaps between highest and Enabling Conditions lowest income earners within a country Conditions that affect the feasibility of and between countries. adaptation and mitigation options, and SR1.5 can accelerate and scale-up systemic transitions that would limit temperature Equity increase to 1.5°C and enhance Equity is the principle of fairness in capacities of systems and societies burden sharing and is a basis for to adapt to the associated climate understanding how the impacts and E E

responses to climate change, including Externalities/External Costs/External costs and benefits, are distributed in Benefits and by society in more or less equal Externalities arise from a human ways. It is often aligned with ideas activity when agents responsible for the of equality, fairness and justice and activity do not take full account of the applied with respect to equity in the activity’s impacts on others’ production responsibility for, and distribution of, and consumption possibilities, and no climate impacts and policies across compensation exists for such impacts. society, generations, and gender, and When the impacts are negative, they in the sense of who participates and are external costs. When the impacts controls the processes of decision- are positive, they are external benefits. making. Distributive equity: Equity in the AR5 WG2 consequences, outcomes, costs and Extreme Weather Event benefits of actions or policies. In the case of climate change or climate An extreme weather event is an policies for different people, places event that is rare at a particular place and countries, including equity aspects and time of year. Definitions of rare of sharing burdens and benefits for vary, but an extreme weather event mitigation and adaptation. would normally be as rare as or rarer Gender equity: Ensuring equity in that than the 10th or 90th percentile of a women and men have the same rights, probability density function estimated resources and opportunities. In the from observations. By definition, the case of climate change gender equity characteristics of what is called extreme recognizes that women are often more weather may vary from place to place vulnerable to the impacts of climate in an absolute sense. When a pattern change and may be disadvantaged in of extreme weather persists for some the process and outcomes of climate time, such as a season, it may be policy. classed as an extreme climate event, Inter-generational equity: Equity especially if it yields an average or total between generations that that is itself extreme (e.g., drought or acknowledges that the effects of past heavy rainfall over a season). and present emissions, vulnerabilities AR5 WG2 and policies impose costs and benefits for people in the future and of different age groups. SR1.5 Exposure The presence of people, livelihoods, species or ecosystems, environmental functions, services, and resources, infrastructure, or economic, social, or cultural assets in places and settings that could be adversely affected. AR5 WG2 F G

Feasibility The degree to which climate goals and response options are considered possible and/or desirable. Feasibility depends on geophysical, ecological, technological, economic, social and F institutional conditions for change. Conditions underpinning feasibility are dynamic, spatially variable, and may vary between different groups. See also Enabling conditions. SR1.5 Flood The overflowing of the normal confines of a stream or other body of water, or the accumulation of water over areas not normally submerged. Floods include river (fluvial) floods, flash floods, urban floods, pluvial floods, sewer floods, coastal floods and glacial lake G outburst floods AR5 SYR Food Security A state that prevails when people have secure access to sufficient amounts Geoengineering of safe and nutritious food for normal Geoengineering refers to a broad set growth, development and an active and of methods and technologies that healthy life. aim to deliberately alter the climate system in order to alleviate the impacts AR5 SYR of climate change. Most, but not all, Fossil Fuel Emissions methods seek to either (1) reduce the Emissions of greenhouse gases (in amount of absorbed solar energy in particular carbon dioxide), other trace the climate system (Solar Radiation gases and aerosols resulting from the Management) or (2) increase net combustion of fuels from fossil carbon carbon sinks from the atmosphere at a deposits such as oil, gas and coal. scale sufficiently large to alter climate (). Scale and AR5 WG1 intent are of central importance. Two Fuel Poverty key characteristics of geoengineering methods of particular concern are that A condition in which a household is they use or affect the climate system unable to guarantee a certain level (e.g., atmosphere, land or ocean) of consumption of domestic energy globally or regionally and/or could have services (especially heating) or suffers substantive unintended effects that disproportionate expenditure burdens cross national boundaries. to meet these needs. AR5 WG1 AR5 SYR G H

Global Warming The estimated increase in global mean surface temperature (GMST) averaged over a 30-year period, or the 30-year period centered on a particular year or decade, expressed relative to pre- industrial levels unless otherwise H specified. For 30-year periods that span past and future years, the current multi- decadal warming trend is assumed to continue. SR1.5 Hazard Governance The potential occurrence of a natural or There is a corresponding shift from human-induced physical event that may government defined strictly by the cause loss of life, injury, or other health nation-state to a more inclusive impacts, as well as damage and loss to concept of governance, recognizing property, infrastructure, livelihoods, the contributions of various levels of service provision, and environmental government (global, international, resources. regional, local) and the roles of the private sector, of nongovernmental SREX actors, and of civil society. Heat Wave SREX A period of abnormally and Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) uncomfortably hot weather. Greenhouse gases are those gaseous AR5 SYR constituents of the atmosphere, Human Security both natural and anthropogenic, that absorb and emit radiation at specific A condition that is met when the vital wavelengths within the spectrum of core of human lives is protected, and terrestrial radiation emitted by the when people have the freedom and Earth’s surface, the atmosphere itself capacity to live with dignity. In the and by clouds. This property causes context of climate change, the vital core the greenhouse effect. Water vapour of human lives includes the universal (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous and culturally specific, material and oxide (N2O), (CH4) and non-material elements necessary for (O3) are the primary GHGs in the people to act on behalf of their interests Earth’s atmosphere. Moreover, there and to live with dignity. are a number of entirely human-made AR5 WG2 GHGs in the atmosphere, such as the halocarbons and other chlorine- and bromine-containing substances, dealt with under the Montreal Protocol. SR1.5 I I

preserve, develop, and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions, and I common law system. AR5 WG2 Industrial Revolution A period of rapid industrial growth with far-reaching social and economic con- sequences, beginning in Britain during Impacts the second half of the 18th century and The consequences of realized risks on spreading to Europe and later to other natural and human systems, where countries including the United States. risks result from the interactions of The invention of the steam engine was climate-related hazards (including an important trigger of this develop- extreme weather and climate events), ment. The industrial revolution marks exposure, and vulnerability. Impacts the beginning of a strong increase in generally refer to effects on lives; the use of fossil fuels and emission livelihoods; health and well-being; of, in particular, fossil carbon dioxide ecosystems and species; economic, (CO2). social and cultural assets; services AR5 SYR (including ecosystem services); and infrastructure. Impacts may be referred Informal Sector to as consequences or outcomes, and Commercial enterprises (mostly can be adverse or beneficial. small) that are not registered or that SR1.5 otherwise fall outside official rules and regulations. Among the businesses that Impact Assessment make up the informal sector, there is The practice of identifying and great diversity in the value of the goods evaluating, in monetary and/or or services produced, the numbers nonmonetary terms, the effects of employed, the extent of illegality, and climate change on natural and human the connection to the formal sector. systems. Many informal enterprises have AR5 WG2 some characteristics of formal-sector enterprises, and some people are in Indigenous People informal employment in the formal Indigenous peoples and nations are sector as they lack legal protection or those that, having a historical continuity employment benefits. with pre-invasion and pre-colonial AR5 WG2 societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct Informal Settlement from other sectors of the societies A term given to settlements or now prevailing on those territories, or residential areas that, by at least parts of them. They form, at present, one criterion, fall outside official principally non-dominant sectors of rules and regulations. Most informal society and are often determined to settlements have poor housing I K

(with widespread use of temporary Intergovernmental Panel on Climate materials) and are developed on land Change (IPCC) that is occupied illegally with high The Intergovernmental Panel on levels of overcrowding. In most such Climate Change (IPCC) was set up by settlements, provision for safe water, the World Meteorological Organization sanitation, drainage, paved roads, (WMO) and United Nations and basic services is inadequate or Environment to provide an objective lacking. The term slum is often used source of scientific information. In for informal settlements, although 2013 the IPCC provided more clarity it is misleading as many informal about the role of human activities in settlements develop into good climate change when it released its Fifth quality residential areas, especially Assessment Report. It is categorical in where governments support such its conclusion: climate change is real development. and human activities are the main AR5 WG2 cause. Institutions UN Institutions are rules and norms Insurance/Reinsurance held in common by social actors that A family of financial instruments for guide, constrain, and shape human sharing and transferring risk among a interaction. Institutions can be formal, pool of at-risk households, businesses, such as laws and policies, or informal, and/or governments. such as norms and conventions. Organizations—such as parliaments, SREX regulatory agencies, private firms, and community bodies—develop and act in response to institutional frameworks and the incentives they frame. Institutions can guide, constrain, and shape human interaction through direct control, through incentives, and K through processes of socialization. AR5 WG2 Integrated Water Resource Management

A process which promotes the coordi- Kyoto Protocol nated development and management of water, land and related resources in The Kyoto Protocol to the United order to maximize economic and social Nations Framework Convention welfare in an equitable manner without on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is compromising the sustainability of vital an international treaty adopted in ecosystems. December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, at the Third Session of the Conference of SR1.5 the Parties (COP3) to the UNFCCC. It Integrated Coastal Zone Management contains legally binding commitments, in addition to those included in the An integrated approach for sustainably UNFCCC. Countries included in Annex B managing coastal areas, taking into of the Protocol (mostly OECD countries account all coastal habitats and uses. and countries with economies in AR5 SYR transition) agreed to reduce their L L

anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) Livelihoods emissions by at least 5% below 1990 The resources used and the activities levels in the first commitment period undertaken in order to live. Livelihoods (2008–2012). The Kyoto Protocol are usually determined by the entitle- entered into force on 16 February 2005 ments and assets to which people have and as of May 2018 had 192 Parties access. Such assets can be categorized (191 States and the European Union). as human, social, natural, physical, or SR1.5 financial. AR5 WG2 Local Disaster Risk Management (LDRM) The process in which local actors (citizens, communities, government, non-profit organizations, institutions, L and businesses) engage in and have ownership of the identification, analysis, evaluation, monitoring, and treatment of disaster risk and disasters, through measures that reduce or anticipate hazard, exposure, or vulnerability; Land Grab transfer risk; improve disaster response Large acquisitions of land or water and recovery; and promote an rights for industrial agriculture, overall increase in capacities. LDRM mitigation projects, or biofuels that normally requires coordination with have negative consequences on local and support from external actors at and marginalized communities. the regional, national, or international AR5 WG2 levels. Community-based disaster risk management is a subset of LDRM Land Use and Land Use Change where community members and Land use refers to the total of organizations are in the center of arrangements, activities, and inputs decisionmaking. undertaken in a certain land cover type SREX (a set of human actions). The term land use is also used in the sense of the Lock-in social and economic purposes for which Lock-in occurs when a market is land is managed (e.g., grazing, timber stuck with a standard even though extraction, and conservation). Land use participants would be better off with an change refers to a change in the use alternative. In this report, lock-in is used or management of land by humans, more broadly as path dependence, which may lead to a change in land which is the generic situation where cover. Land cover and land use change decisions, events or outcomes at one may have an impact on the surface point in time constrain adaptation, albedo, evapotranspiration, sources mitigation or other actions or options at and sinks of greenhouse gases, or other a later point in time. properties of the climate system and AR5 SYR may thus give rise to radiative forcing and/or other impacts on climate, locally Loss and Damage or globally. Research has taken Loss and Damage AR5 WG2 (capitalized letters) to refer to political M N

debate under the UNFCCC following migration of refugees, displaced the establishment of the Warsaw Mech- persons, economic migrants, and anism on Loss and Damage in 2013, persons moving for other purposes, which is to ‘address loss and damage including family reunification.’ associated with impacts of climate SR1.5 change, including extreme events and slow onset events, in developing coun- Mitigation (of disaster risk and disaster) tries that are particularly vulnerable to The lessening of the potential adverse the adverse effects of climate change.’ impacts of physical hazards (including SR1.5 those that are human-induced) through actions that reduce hazard, exposure, Low Regrets Policy and vulnerability. A policy that would generate net so- AR5 WG2 cial and/or economic benefits under current climate and a range of future Mitigation (of climate change) climate change scenarios. A human intervention to reduce the AR5 WG2 sources or enhance the sinks of green- house gases. AR5 WG2 M N

Maladaptation Actions that may lead to increased risk of adverse climate-related outcomes, Nationally Determined Contributions including via increased GHG emissions, (NDCs) increased vulnerability to climate A term used under the United Nations change, or diminished welfare, now or Framework Convention on Climate in the future. Maladaptation is usually Change (UNFCCC) whereby a country an unintended consequence. that has joined the Paris Agreement SR1.5 outlines its plans for reducing its emissions. Some countries’ NDCs Migration also address how they will adapt to The International Organization for climate change impacts, and what Migration (IOM) defines migration support they need from, or will as ‘The movement of a person or provide to, other countries to adopt a group of persons, either across low-carbon pathways and to build an international border, or within a climate resilience. According to Article State. It is a population movement, 4 paragraph 2 of the Paris Agreement, encompassing any kind of movement each Party shall prepare, communicate of people, whatever its length, and maintain successive NDCs that it composition and causes; it includes intends to achieve. In the lead up to O P

21st Conference of the Parties in Paris Anthropogenic ocean acidification in 2015, countries submitted Intended refers to the component of pH Nationally Determined Contributions reduction that is caused by human (INDCs). As countries join the Paris activity Agreement, unless they decide AR5 SYR otherwise, this INDC becomes their first Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). SR1.5 Net Zero Emissions Net zero emissions are achieved when anthropogenic emissions of P greenhouse gases to the atmosphere are balanced by anthropogenic removals over a specified period. Where multiple greenhouse gases are involved, the quantification of net zero emissions depends on the climate Paris Agreement metric chosen to compare emissions of different gases (such as global warming The Paris Agreement under the potential, global temperature change UNFCCC was adopted on December potential, and others, as well as the 2015 in Paris, France, at the 21st chosen time horizon). session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC. The agreement, SR1.5 adopted by 196 Parties to the UNFCCC, entered into force on 4 November 2016 and as of May 2018 had 195 Signatories and was ratified by 177 Parties. One of the goals of the Paris Agreement is ‘Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature O increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels’, recognising that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. Additionally, the Agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the Ocean Acidification impacts of climate change. Ocean acidification refers to a SR1.5 reduction in the pH of the ocean over Path Dependence an extended period, typically decades or longer, which is caused primarily The generic situation where decisions, by uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) events, or outcomes at one point in from the atmosphere, but can also be time constrain adaptation, mitigation, caused by other chemical additions or other actions or options at a later or subtractions from the ocean. point in time. AR5 WG2 P R

Pathways Poverty Trap The temporal evolution of natural and/ Poverty trap is understood differently or human systems towards a future across disciplines. In the social sciences, state. Pathway concepts range from the concept, primarily employed at the sets of quantitative and qualitative individual, household, or community scenarios or narratives of potential level, describes a situation in which futures to solution oriented decision- escaping poverty becomes impossible making processes to achieve desirable due to unproductive or inflexible societal goals. Pathway approaches resources. A poverty trap can also typically focus on biophysical, techno- be seen as a critical minimum asset economic, and/or socio-behavioural threshold, below which families are trajectories and involve various unable to successfully educate their dynamics, goals and actors across children, build up their productive different scales. assets, and get out of poverty. Extreme poverty is itself a poverty trap, since SR1.5 poor persons lack the means to Peri-Urban Areas participate meaningfully in society. In Peri-urban areas are those parts of a economics, the term poverty trap is city that appear to be quite rural but often used at national scales, referring are in reality strongly linked functionally to a self-perpetuating condition to the city in its daily activities. where an economy, caught in a vicious cycle, suffers from persistent SR1.5 underdevelopment (Matsuyama, 2008). Projection Many proposed models of poverty traps are found in the literature. A projection is a potential future evolution of a quantity or set of AR5 WG2 quantities, often computed with the aid of a model. Unlike predictions, projections are conditional on assumptions concerning, for example, future socioeconomic and technological developments that may or may not be realized. R AR5 WG2 Poverty Poverty is a complex concept with several definitions stemming from different schools of thought. It can refer to material circumstances (such Radiative Forcing as need, pattern of deprivation, or The strength of drivers is quantified as limited resources), economic conditions Radiative Forcing (RF) in units watts per (such as standard of living, inequality, square meter (W/m2) as in previous or economic position), and/or social IPCC assessments. RF is the change in relationships (such as social class, energy flux caused by a driver and is dependency, exclusion, lack of basic calculated at the tropopause or at the security, or lack of entitlement). top of the atmosphere. AR5 WG2 AR5 SYR R R

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation Representative Concentration Pathways and Forest Degradation (REDD+) (RCPs) An effort to create financial value for Scenarios that include time series of the carbon stored in forests, offering emissions and concentrations of the full incentives for developing countries suite of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and to reduce emissions from forested aerosols and chemically active gases, as lands and invest in low carbon paths well as land use/land cover (Moss et al., to sustainable development (SD). 2008). The word representative signifies It is therefore a mechanism for that each RCP provides only one of mitigation that results from avoiding many possible scenarios that would deforestation. REDD+ goes beyond lead to the specific radiative forcing reforestation and forest degradation characteristics. The term pathway and includes the role of conservation, emphasizes that not only the long-term sustainable management of forests concentration levels are of interest, but and enhancement of forest carbon also the trajectory taken over time to stocks. The concept was first introduced reach that outcome (Moss et al., 2010). in 2005 in the 11th Session of the AR5 SYR Conference of the Parties (COP) in Montreal and later given greater Resilience recognition in the 13th Session of the The capacity of social, economic, COP in 2007 at Bali and inclusion in the and environmental systems to Bali Action Plan which called for ‘policy cope with a hazardous event or approaches and positive incentives on trend or disturbance, responding or issues relating to reducing emissions reorganizing in ways that maintain from deforestation and forest their essential function, identity, and degradation in developing countries structure, while also maintaining the (REDD) and the role of conservation, capacity for adaptation, learning, and sustainable management of forests and transformation. enhancement of forest carbon stock in developing countries’. AR5 WG2 AR5 SYR Risk Region The potential for consequences where something of value is at stake A region is a territory characterized by and where the outcome is uncertain, specific geographical and climatological recognizing the diversity of values. Risk features. The climate of a region is is often represented as probability affected by regional and local scale of occurrence of hazardous events features like topography, land use or trends multiplied by the impacts characteristics and lakes, as well as if these events or trends occur. remote influences from other regions. Risk results from the interaction of AR5 WG1 vulnerability, exposure, and hazard. In this report, the term risk is used Renewable energy primarily to refer to the risks of climate- Renewable energy is energy from change impacts. sources that will renew themselves AR5 WG2 within our lifetime. Renewable energy sources include wind, sun, water, Risk Assessment biomass (vegetation) and geothermal The qualitative and/or quantitative sci- heat. entific estimation of risks. UC Davis Science and Climate AR5 WG2 R S

Risk Management Sea-Level Change Plans, actions, or policies to reduce the Sea level can change, both globally and likelihood and/or consequences of risks locally (relative sea level change) due to or to respond to consequences. (1) a change in ocean volume as a result of a change in the mass of water in the AR5 WG2 ocean, (2) changes in ocean volume Risk Perception as a result of changes in ocean water The subjective judgment that people density, (3) changes in the shape of the make about the characteristics and se- ocean basins and changes in the Earth’s verity of a risk. gravitational and rotational fields, and (4) local subsidence or uplift of the land. AR5 WG2 SR1.5 Risk Transfer Sea Surface Temperature The process of formally or informally shifting the financial consequences The sea surface temperature is the of particular risks from one party subsurface bulk temperature in the top to another whereby a household, few meters of the ocean, measured by community, enterprise, or state ships, buoys, and drifters. authority will obtain resources from the SR1.5 other party after a disaster occurs, in exchange for ongoing or compensatory Sequestration social or financial benefits provided to The uptake (i.e., the addition of a that other party. substance of concern to a reservoir) of carbon containing substances, SREX in particular carbon dioxide (CO2), in terrestrial or marine reservoirs. Biological sequestration includes direct removal of CO2 from the atmosphere through land-use change (LUC), afforestation, reforestation, revegetation, carbon storage in landfills S and practices that enhance soil carbon in agriculture (cropland management, grazing land management). AR5 SYR

Scenario Sink A plausible description of how the Any process, activity or mechanism future may develop based on a that removes a greenhouse gas (GHG), coherent and internally consistent an aerosol or a precursor of a GHG or set of assumptions about key driving aerosol from the atmosphere. forces (e.g., rate of technological AR5 SYR change, prices) and relationships. Note Solar Radiation Modification that scenarios are neither predictions nor forecasts, but are useful to Solar radiation modification refers provide a view of the implications of to the intentional modification of the developments and actions. Earth’s shortwave radiative budget with the aim of reducing warming. AR5 WG2 Artificial injection of stratospheric S T

aerosols, marine cloud brightening and Sustainability land surface albedo modification are A dynamic process that guarantees the examples of proposed SRM methods. persistence of natural and human sys- SR1.5 tems in an equitable manner. AR5 WG2 Storm Surge Sustainable Development The temporary increase, at a particular Development that meets the needs of locality, in the height of the sea due to the present without compromising the extreme meteorological conditions (low ability of future generations to meet atmospheric pressure and/or strong their own needs. winds). The storm surge is defined SREX as being the excess above the level expected from the tidal variation alone 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at that time and place A UN resolution in September 2015 AR5 SYR adopting a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity in a new global Stressors development framework anchored in Events and trends, often not climate- 17 Sustainable Development Goals (UN, related, that have an important effect 2015). on the system exposed and can AR5 WG2 increase vulnerability to climate-related risk. AR5 WG2 Socioeconomic Scenario A scenario that describes a possible future in terms of population, T gross domestic product, and other socioeconomic factors relevant to understanding the implications of climate change. AR5 WG2 Technology transfer Social Protection A broad set of processes covering the In the context of development aid and flows of know-how, experience and climate policy, social protection usually equipment for mitigating and adapting describes public and private initiatives to climate change among different that provide income or consumption stakeholders transfers to the poor, protect the UNFCCC vulnerable against livelihood risks, and enhance the social status and rights Tipping Point of the marginalized, with the overall A level of change in system properties objective of reducing the economic and beyond which a system reorganizes, social vulnerability of poor, vulnerable, often abruptly, and does not return to and marginalized groups. the initial state even if the drivers of AR5 WG2 the change are abated. For the climate system, it refers to a critical threshold U V W

when global or regional climate changes concentrations in the atmosphere at from one stable state to another stable a level that would prevent dangerous state. The tipping point event may be anthropogenic interference with irreversible. the climate system.’ The provisions of the Convention are pursued and AR5 SYR implemented by two treaties: the Kyoto Traditional Knowledge Protocol and the Paris Agreement. The knowledge, innovations, and SR1.5 practices of both indigenous and local communities around the world that are deeply grounded in history and experience. Traditional knowledge is dynamic and adapts to cultural and environmental change, and also incorporates other forms of knowledge and viewpoints. Traditional knowledge V is generally transmitted orally from generation to generation. It is often used as a synonym for indigenous knowledge, local knowledge, or traditional ecological knowledge. Vulnerability AR5 WG2 The propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected. Vulnerability en- Transformation compasses a variety of concepts and A change in the fundamental attributes elements including sensitivity or sus- of natural and human systems. ceptibility to harm and lack of capacity AR5 WG2 to cope and adapt. AR5 WG2

U W

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Weather The UNFCCC was adopted in May The state of the atmosphere with re- 1992 and opened for signature at the gard to temperature, cloudiness, rain- 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. fall, wind and other meteorological It entered into force in March 1994 conditions. It is not the same as climate and as of May 2018 had 197 Parties which is the average weather over a (196 States and the European Union). much longer period. The Convention’s ultimate objective BBC is the ‘stabilisation of greenhouse gas

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