REPORTS ASSESSMENT REPORTS

Working Group III: Mitigation


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Banking
According to the Kyoto Protocol [Article 3 (13)], Parties included in Annex I to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change may save excess emissions allowances or credits from the first commitment period for use in subsequent commitment periods (post-2012).

Barrier
A barrier is any obstacle to reaching a potential that can be overcome by a policy, programme, or measure.

Barrier removal costs
The costs of activities aimed at correcting market failures directly or at reducing the transactions costs in the public and/or private sector. Examples include costs of improving institutional capacity, reducing risk and uncertainty, facilitating market transactions, and enforcing regulatory policies.

Baseline
A non-intervention scenario used as a base in the analysis of intervention scenarios.

Benefit transfer
An application of monetary values from a particular valuation study to an alternative or secondary policy-decision setting, often in a geographic area other than the one in which the original study was performed.

Biofuel
A fuel produced from dry organic matter or combustible oils produced by plants. Examples of biofuel include alcohol (from fermented sugar), black liquor from the paper manufacturing process, wood, and soybean oil.

Biological options
Biological options for mitigation of climate change involves one or more of the three strategies: conservation - conserving an existing carbon pool, and thereby preventing emissions to the atmosphere; sequestration - increasing the size of existing carbon pools, and thereby extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; and substitution - substituting biological products for fossil fuels or energy-intensive products, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Biomass
The total mass of living organisms in a given area or volume; recently dead plant material is often included as dead biomass. Biomass can be used for fuel directly by burning it (e.g., wood), or indirectly by fermentation to alcohol (e.g., sugar) or extraction of combustible oils (e.g., soybeans).

Bottom-up models
A modelling approach that includes technological and engineering details in the analysis. See also top-down models.

Bubble
Article 4 of the Kyoto Protocol allows a group of countries to meet their target listed in Annex B jointly by aggregating their total emissions under one “bubble” and sharing the burden. The European Union nations intend to aggregate and share their emissions commitments under one bubble.

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