Glossary of commonly used terms:

Additionality:
Emissions reductions are 'additional' if they occur because of the incentives associated with the existence of greenhouse gas markets. A variety of additionality 'tests' have been proposed. Basically, demonstrating additionality means showing that the emissions reductions being used as offsets are not 'business as usual'.

Afforestation:
Planted forests on land not previously in forest.

Audit:
A systematic examination against defined criteria to determine whether activities and related results conform to planned arrangements and whether these arrangements are implemented effectively and are suitable to achieve the organisation’s objectives

Biodiversity:
The range of species (including genetic diversity within species), communities and ecosystems, and the natural interactions and processes that take place above and below ground in the environment.

Biomass:
The total mass of living matter within a given unit of environmental area.

Biosphere:
The part of the Earth system comprising all ecosystems and living organisms in the atmosphere, on land (terrestrial biosphere), or in the oceans (marine biosphere), including derived dead organic matter such as litter, soil organic matter, and oceanic detritus.

Carbon credits:
Credits are awarded for sequestering, avoiding or reducing CO2 emissions to the atmosphere … the carbon entered on the credit side of your account; CO2 emissions due to activities that use fossil fuels are on the negative side of the balance. A carbon credit is equivalent to one tonne of CO2 emissions.

Carbon cycle:
The flow of the Earth's carbon through four main reservoirs (atmosphere, terrestrial biosphere, oceans, and sediments) interconnected by pathways of exchange.

Carbon dioxide:
A colorless, odorless noncombustible gas that is present in the atmosphere. It is formed by the combustion of carbon and carbon compounds (such as fossil fuels and biomass), by respiration of animals and plants, and by the gradual oxidation of organic matter in the soil.

Carbon dioxide fertilization:
The acceleration of plant growth by CO2 enrichment that can occur in natural or agricultural systems as a result of an increase in the atmospheric concentration of CO2.

Carbon equivalent:
A measure used to compare the emissions of the different greenhouse gases based upon relating their global warming potential to that of carbon dioxide.

Carbon footprint:
A measure of the amount of carbon dioxide or CO2 emitted through the combustion of fossil fuels; in the case of an organisation or business, it is the CO2 emissions due to their everyday operations; in the case of an individual or household, it is the CO2 emissions due to their daily activities; for a product or service, it is the CO2 emissions due to growing, production and transport to market; for materials, it is a measure of the embodied CO2 determined through life cycle analysis.

Carbon neutral:
CO2 emissions to the atmosphere are fully offset, counterbalanced, compensated or neutralised through the purchase of an equivalent amount of carbon credits created from forest sinks, the generation of renewable energy or energy efficiency projects; i.e., there are no net greenhouse gas emissions. The term may be used to describe a product, service, event, organisation, or individual activities.

Carbon sinks:
Carbon sink refers to removal of atmospheric CO2, usually via photosynthesis in plants. By growing pasture to shrublands, and shrublands to forest results in accumulating large quantities of biomass carbon. Because the growth of a native forest from a starting point of a pasture will take such a long time (probably centuries), the sequestration of biomass carbon will continue for a long time.

Carbon offset:
A compensation for the impact of a company's emissions by avoiding or sequestering an equal amount of greenhouse gases at another site.

Carbon sequestration:
The uptake and storage of carbon. Trees and plants, for example, absorb carbon dioxide, release the oxygen and store the carbon. Fossil fuels, which were at one time biomass, release stored carbon when burned.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM):
A provision in the Kyoto Protocol that enables industrialized countries to finance emissions-avoiding projects in developing countries and receive credit for doing so.

Carbon trading:
A market in which large emitters of CO2 can offset their emissions by buying carbon credits from another party. Although some individual companies trade carbon there is no well-established international market yet.

carboNZero Programme:
A certification programme to measure, manage and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change:
The long-term fluctuations in temperature, precipitation, wind, and all other aspects of the Earth's climate. Also a popular term for current changes in the Earth's climate commonly attributed to the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations since the start of the industrial revolution.

Commitment Periods (CP1):
The period over which countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol are legally bound to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The first commitment period (CP1) is from 2008 to 2012.

Conversion factor(s):
A numerical factor used to convert use of an energy source into a greenhouse gas emissions figure in tonnes of carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide equivalents. Conversion factors are also commonly referred to as emissions factors.

Data acquisition:
The process by which an organisation captures data on its fuel and energy use.

Data sources:
The source of data e.g. electricity or gas retailer, production data.

Direct emissions (Scope 1):
Greenhouse gas emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the participant e.g. from production processes, company owned refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment, and/or burning of fuel in boilers and company owned vehicles.

EBEX21®:
Emissions Biodiversity Exchange 21st century.

Emissions reduction:
A measured reduction in greenhouse gas emissions or emissions intensity due to efficiency projects and/or fuel substitution.

Fossil fuel:
A hydrocarbon deposit, such as petroleum, coal, or natural gas, derived from living matter of a previous geologic time and used for fuel.

Global change:
Changes in the environment resulting from both natural changes and impacts of human activities on the world's atmosphere and climate system.

Global warming:
The progressive gradual rise of the Earth's average surface temperature thought to be caused in part by increased concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases trap heat that is normally radiated into space, and reflect it back to earth.

Greenhouse effect:
A popular term used to describe the roles of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases in keeping the Earth's surface warmer than it would be otherwise. These gases are relatively transparent to incoming shortwave radiation, but are relatively opaque to outgoing longwave radiation. The latter radiation, which would otherwise escape to space, is trapped by these gases within the lower levels of the atmosphere. The subsequent re-radiation of some of the energy back to the surface maintains surface temperatures higher than they would be if the gases were absent.

Greenhouse gases:
The major greenhouse gases are: carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. All these gases occur naturally, but human activities, such as travel, energy consumption, and agriculture increase the amount of these gases in the atmosphere. Other greenhouse gases that do not occur naturally, but are generated in a variety of industrial processes, are halocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride. Greenhouse gases differ in their ability to trap heat in the atmosphere-they have different global warming potential. Their action is similar to that of glass in a greenhouse.

Indigenous:
Originating and living or occurring naturally in an area, environment, or country.

Kyoto Protocol:
The Kyoto Protocol is the first legally binding international agreement aimed at slowing, and eventually stopping, global warming. It is an international plan of action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One hundred and seventeen countries have signed it. Countries that ratify the Protocol agree to cut back their greenhouse gas emissions to predetermined levels over the period 2008 to 2012 (the first commitment period). They can do this by directly reducing the emissions they produce, buying carbon credits from other countries, or offsetting the emissions they cannot reduce, for example, by planting new forests or increasing areas of scrubland vegetation to increase the amount of carbon dioxide taken from the atmosphere. New Zealand ratified the Kyoto Protocol in December 2002.
For further information on the Kyoto Protocol visit the UNFCCC website.

Land-use, Land-use change:
Land uses and land-use changes can act either as sinks or as emission sources. It is estimated that approximately one-fifth of global emissions result from land-use activities. The Kyoto Protocol allows Parties to receive emissions credit for certain land-use activities that reduce net emissions.

Offsetting:
To compensate, counterbalance or neutralise CO2 emissions by increasing carbon sinks, energy efficiency initiatives or sources of renewable energy. The removal of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere through the purchase of verified emissions units or carbon credits.

Permanent Forest Sinks Initiative (PFSI):
This New Zealand government initiative provides an opportunity for landowners to establish permanent forest sinks and obtain tradable Kyoto Protocol compliant emission units in proportion to the carbon sequestered in their forests The PFSI is administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's Indigenous Forestry Unit.
See http://www.maf.govt.nz/forestry/pfsi/

Production emissions:
Greenhouse gas emissions produced from a production process.

Projects to Reduce Emissions (PRE):
A New Zealand Government programme that supports initiatives that will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beyond the reductions that would have occurred without the project by awarding them Kyoto-compliant carbon credits.
See www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/climate/policies-initiatives/projects/index.html

QEII covenant:
A legal agreement with the Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) Trust to ensure current and future land owners keep the area under regenerating forest protected forever. See www.qe2.org.nz for more information.

Reforestation / regeneration:
Regrowth of forest on land that was previously forested by indigenous species.

Sequestration:
Removal of atmospheric CO2, either through biological processes (e.g. plants and trees), or geological processes that capture carbon.

Sink:
Carbon sink refers to removal of atmospheric CO2, usually via photosynthesis in plants. By growing pasture to shrublands, and shrublands to forest results in accumulating large quantities of biomass carbon.

Terrestrial:
Pertaining to the land; not aquatic.

UNFCCC:
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Zero emissions:
No greenhouse gases are emitted. Generally the term used should be zero net emissions, which means the actual emissions are completely offset through carbon sequestration or purchase of other carbon credits.