Glossary A-D
Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ)
The pilot phase for Joint Implementation, as defined in Article 4.2(a) of the UNFCCC, which allows for project activity among developed countries (and their companies) and between developed and developing countries (and their companies). AIJ is intended to allow parties to the UNFCCC to gain experience in jointly implemented projects. AIJ under the pilot phase do not lead to any credits. Decisions remain about the future of AIJ projects and how they may relate to the Kyoto Mechanisms. As a simple form of tradable permits, AIJ and other market-based schemes represent potential mechanisms for stimulating additional resource flows for reducing emissions. See also Clean Development Mechanism, and Emissions Trading.
Actual net greenhouse gas removals by sinks
The sum of the verifiable changes in carbon stocks in the carbon pools within the project boundary of an afforestation or reforestation project, minus the increase in GHG emissions as a result of the implementation of the project activity. The term stems from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) afforestation and reforestation modalities and procedures.
Adaptation
Initiatives and measures to reduce the vulnerability of natural and human systems against actual or expected climate change effects. Various types of adaptation exist, e.g. anticipatory and reactive, private and public, and autonomous and planned. Examples are raising river or coastal dikes, the substitution of more temperature-shock resistant plants for sensitive ones, etc.
Adaptive capacity
The whole of capabilities, resources and institutions of a country or region to implement effective adaptation measures.
Additionality
Reduction in emissions by sources or enhancement of removals by sinks that is additional to any that would occur in the absence of a Joint Implementation (JI) or a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project activity as defined in the Kyoto Protocol Articles on JI and CDM. This definition may be further broadened to include financial, investment, technology, and environmental additionality. Under financial additionality, the project activity funding is additional to existing Global Environmental Facility, other financial commitments of parties included in Annex I, Official Development Assistance, and other systems of cooperation. Under investment additionality, the value of the Emissions Reduction Unit/Certified Emission Reduction Unit shall significantly improve the financial or commercial viability of the project activity. Under technology additionality, the technology used for the project activity shall be the best available for the circumstances of the host party. Environmental additionality refers to the environmental integrity of the claimed amount by which greenhouse gas emissions are reduced due to a project relative to its baseline. A project activity is further additional, if the incentive from the sale of emission allowances helps to overcome barriers to its implementation.
Aerosols
A collection of airborne solid or liquid particles, typically between 0.01 and 10 μm in size and residing in the atmosphere for at least several hours. Aerosols may be of either natural or anthropogenic origin. Aerosols may influence climate in several ways: directly through scattering and absorbing radiation, and indirectly through acting as condensation nuclei for cloud formation or modifying the optical properties and lifetime of clouds.
Afforestation
Direct human-induced conversion of land that has not been forested for a period of at least 50 years to forested land through planting, seeding and/or the human-induced promotion of natural seed sources. See also Re- and Deforestation.
Agreement
In this Report, the degree of agreement is the relative level of convergence of the literature as assessed by the authors.
Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)
Formed at the Second World Climate Conference (1990). AOSIS comprises small-island and low-lying coastal developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse consequences of climate change, such as sea-level rise, coral bleaching, and the increased frequency and intensity of tropical storms. With more than 35 states from the Atlantic, Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and Pacific, AOSIS share common objectives on environmental and sustainable development matters in the UNFCCC process.
Ancillary benefits
Policies aimed at some target, e.g. climate change mitigation, may be paired with positive side effects, such as increased resource-use efficiency, reduced emissions of air pollutants associated with fossil fuel use, improved transportation, agriculture, land-use practices, employment, and fuel security. Ancillary impacts is also used when the effects may be negative. Policies directed at abating air pollution may consider greenhouse-gas mitigation an ancillary benefit, but this perspective is not considered in this assessment. See also co-benefits.
Annex I countries
The group of countries included in Annex I (as amended in 1998) to the UNFCCC, including all the OECD countries Errata and economies in transition. Under Articles 4.2 (a) and 4.2 (b) of the Convention, Annex I countries committed themselves specifically to the aim of returning individually or jointly to their 1990 levels of greenhouse-gas emissions by the year 2000. By default, the other countries are referred to as Non-Annex I countries.
Annex II countries
The group of countries included in Annex II to the UNFCCC, including all OECD countries. Under Article 4.2 (g) of the Convention, these countries are expected to provide financial resources to assist developing countries to comply with their obligations, such as preparing national reports. Annex II countries are also expected to promote the transfer of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries.
Annex B countries
The countries included in Annex B to the Kyoto Protocol that have agreed to a target for their greenhouse-gas emissions, including all the Annex I countries (as amended in 1998) except for Turkey and Belarus.
Anthropogenic emissions
Emissions of greenhouse gases, greenhouse-gas precursors, and aerosols associated with human activities. These include the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, land-use changes, livestock, fertilization, etc. that result in a net increase in emissions.
Assigned Amount (AA)
Under the Kyoto Protocol, the assigned amount is the quantity of greenhouse-gas emissions that an Annex B country has agreed to as its ceiling for its emissions in the first commitment period (2008 to 2012). The AA is the country’s total greenhouse-gas emissions in 1990 multiplied by five (for the five-year commitment period) and by the percentage it agreed to as listed in Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol (e.g. 92% for the EU; 93% for the USA).
Assigned Amount Unit (AAU)
An AAU equals 1 tonne (metric ton) of CO2-equivalent emissions calculated using the Global Warming Potential.
Backstop technology
Models estimating mitigation often characterize an arbitrary carbon-free technology (often for power generation) that becomes available in the future in unlimited supply over the horizon of the model. This allows models to explore the consequences and importance of a generic solution technology without becoming enmeshed in picking the technology. This “backstop” technology might be a nuclear technology, fossil technology with capture and sequestration, solar, or something as yet unimagined. The backstop technology is typically assumed either not to currently exist, or to exist only at higher costs relative to conventional alternatives.
Banking
According to the Kyoto Protocol [Article 3 (13)], parties included in Annex I to the UNFCCC may save excess AAUs from the first commitment period for compliance with their respective cap in subsequent commitment periods (post-2012).
Barrier
Any obstacle to reaching a goal, adaptation or mitigation potential that can be overcome or attenuated by a policy, programme, or measure. Barrier removal includes correcting market failures directly or reducing the transactions costs in the public and private sectors by e.g. improving institutional capacity, reducing risk and uncertainty, facilitating market transactions, and enforcing regulatory policies.
Baseline
The reference for measurable quantities from which an alternative outcome can be measured, e.g. a non-intervention scenario is used as a reference in the analysis of intervention scenarios.
Benchmark
A measurable variable used as a baseline or reference in evaluating the performance of an organization. Benchmarks may he drawn from internal experience, that of other organizations or from legal requirement and are often used to gauge changes in performance over time.
Benefit transfer
An application of monetary values from one particular analysis to another policy-decision setting, often in a geographic area other than the one in which the original study was performed.
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)
The amount of dissolved oxygen consumed by micro-organisms (bacteria) in the bio-chemical oxidation of organic and inorganic matter in waste water.
Biocovers
Layers placed on top of landfills that are biologically active in oxidizing methane into CO2.
Biofilters
Filters using biological material to filter or chemically process pollutants like oxidizing methane into CO2.
Biodiversity
The variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.
Bioenergy
Energy derived from biomass.
Biofuel
Any liquid, gaseous, or solid fuel produced from plant or animal organic matter. E.g. soybean oil, alcohol from fermented sugar, black liquor from the paper manufacturing process, wood as fuel, etc. Second-generation biofuels are products such as ethanol and biodiesel derived from ligno-cellulosic biomass by chemical or biological processes.
Biological options
Biological options for mitigation of climate change involve one or more of the three strategies: conservation - conserving an existing carbon pool, thereby preventing CO2 emissions to the atmosphere; sequestration - increasing the size of existing carbon pools, thereby extracting CO2 from the atmosphere; substitution - substituting biomass for fossil fuels or energy-intensive products, thereby reducing CO2 emissions.
Biomass
The total mass of living organisms in a given area or of a given species usually expressed as dry weight. Organic matter consisting of, or recently derived from, living organisms (especially regarded as fuel) excluding peat. Biomass includes products, by-products and waste derived from such material. Cellulosic biomass is biomass from cellulose, the primary structural component of plants and trees
Black Carbon
Particle matter in the atmosphere that consists of soot, charcoal and/or possible light-absorbing refractory organic material. Black carbon is operationally defined matter based on measurement of light absorption and chemical reactivity and/or thermal stability.
Bottom-up models
Models represent reality by aggregating characteristics of specific activities and processes, considering technological, engineering and cost details. See also top-down models.
Bubble
Policy instrument for pollution abatement named for its treatment of multiple emission points as if they were contained in an imaginary 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 (e.g. the EU).
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)
A process consisting of separation of CO2 from industrial and energy-related sources, transport to a storage location, and long-term isolation from the atmosphere.
Carbon cycle
The set of processes such as photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, and air-sea exchange, by which carbon continuously cycles through various reservoirs, such as the atmosphere, living organisms, soils, and oceans.
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
CO2 is a naturally occurring gas, and a by-product of burning fossil fuels or biomass, of land-use changes and of industrial processes. It is the principal anthropogenic greenhouse gas that affects Earth’s radiative balance. It is the reference gas against which other greenhouse gases are measured and therefore it has a Global Warming Potential of 1.
Carbon dioxide fertilization
The enhancement of the growth of plants because of increased atmospheric CO2 concentration. Depending on their mechanism of photosynthesis, certain types of plants are more sensitive to changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration than others.
Carbon intensity
The amount of emissions of CO2 per unit of GDP.
Carbon leakage
The part of emissions reductions in Annex B countries that may be offset by an increase of the emissions in the non-constrained countries above their baseline levels. This can occur through (1) relocation of energy-intensive production in non-constrained regions; (2) increased consumption of fossil fuels in these regions through decline in the international price of oil and gas triggered by lower demand for these energies; and (3) changes in incomes (thus in energy demand) because of better terms of trade. Leakage also refers to GHG-related effects of GHG-emission reduction or CO2-sequestration project activities that occur outside the project boundaries and that are measurable and attributable to the activity. On most occasions, leakage is understood as counteracting the initial activity. Nevertheless, there may be situations where effects attributable to the activity outside the project area lead to GHG-emission reductions. These are commonly called spill-over. While (negative) leakage leads to a discount of emission reductions as verified, positive spill-over may not in all cases be accounted for.
Carbon pool
Carbon pools are: above-ground biomass, belowground biomass, litter, dead wood and soil organic carbon. CDM project participants may choose not to account one or more carbon pools if they provide transparent and verifiable information showing that the choice will not increase the expected net anthropogenic GHG removals by sinks.
Carbon price
What has to be paid (to some public authority as a tax rate, or on some emission permit exchange) for the emission of 1 tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere. In the models and this Report, the carbon price is the social cost of avoiding an additional unit of CO2 equivalent emission. In some models it is represented by the shadow price of an additional unit of CO2 emitted, in others by the rate of carbon tax, or the price of emission-permit allowances. It has also been used in this Report as a cut-off rate for marginal abatement costs in the assessment of economic mitigation potentials.
Cap
Mandated restraint as an upper limit on emissions. The Kyoto Protocol mandates emissions caps in a scheduled timeframe on the anthropogenic GHG emissions released by Annex B countries. By 2008-2012 the EU e.g. must reduce its CO2-equivalent emissions of six greenhouse gases to a level 8% lower than the 1990-level.
Capacity building
In the context of climate change, capacity building is developing technical skills and institutional capabilities in developing countries and economies in transition to enable their participation in all aspects of adaptation to, mitigation of, and research on climate change, and in the implementation of the Kyoto Mechanisms, etc.
CCS-ready
If rapid deployment of CCS is desired, new power plants could be designed and located to be ‘CCS-ready’ by reserving space for the capture installation, designing the unit for optimal performance when capture is added and siting the plant to enable access to storage reservoirs.
Certified Emission Reduction Unit (CER)
Equal to one metric tonne of CO2-equivalent emissions reduced or sequestered through a Clean Development Mechanism project, calculated using Global Warming Potentials. In order to reflect potential non-permanence of afforestation and reforestation project activities, the use of temporary certificates for Net Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Removal was decided by COP 9. See also Emissions Reduction Units.
Chemical oxygen demand (COD)
The quantity of oxygen required for the complete oxidation of organic chemical compounds in water; used as a measure of the level of organic pollutants in natural and waste waters.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
Greenhouse gases covered under the 1987 Montreal Protocol and used for refrigeration, air conditioning, packaging, insulation, solvents, or aerosol propellants. Because they are not destroyed in the lower atmosphere, CFCs drift into the upper atmosphere where, given suitable conditions, they break down ozone. These gases are being replaced by other compounds, including hydrochlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons, which are greenhouse gases covered under the Kyoto Protocol.
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
Defined in Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol, the CDM is intended to meet two objectives: (1) to assist parties not included in Annex I in achieving sustainable development and in contributing to the ultimate objective of the convention; and (2) to assist parties included in Annex I in achieving compliance with their quantified emission limitation and reduction commitments. Certified Emission Reduction Units from CDM projects undertaken in Non-Annex I countries that limit or reduce GHG emissions, when certified by operational entities designated by Conference of the Parties/Meeting of the Parties, can be accrued to the investor (government or industry) from parties in Annex B. A share of the proceeds from certified project activities is used to cover administrative expenses as well as to assist developing country parties that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change to meet the costs of adaptation.
Climate Change (CC)
Climate change refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings, or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use.
Note that UNFCCC, in its Article 1, defines “climate change” as “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods”. The UNFCCC thus makes a distinction between “climate change” attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition, and “climate variability” attributable to natural causes.
Climate feedback
An interaction mechanism between processes in the climate system is a climate feedback when the result of an initial process triggers changes in secondary processes that in turn influence the initial one. A positive feedback intensifies the initial process; a negative feedback reduces the initial process. Example of a positive climate feedback: higher temperatures as initial process cause melting of the arctic ice leading to less reflection of solar radiation, what leads to higher temperatures. Example of a negative feedback: higher temperatures increase the amount of cloud cover (thickness or extent) that could reduce incoming solar radiation and so limit the increase in temperature.
Climate sensitivity
In IPCC Reports, equilibrium climate sensitivity refers to the equilibrium change in annual mean global surface temperature following a doubling of the atmospheric CO2-equivalent concentration. The evaluation of the equilibrium climate sensitivity is expensive and often hampered by computational constraints.
The effective climate sensitivity is a related measure that circumvents the computational problem by avoiding the requirement of equilibrium. It is evaluated from model output for evolving non-equilibrium conditions. It is a measure of the strengths of the feedbacks at a particular time and may vary with forcing history and climate state. The climate sensitivity parameter refers to the equilibrium change in the annual mean global surface temperature following a unit change in radiative forcing (K/W/m2)
The transient climate response is the change in the global surface temperature, averaged over a 20-year period, centred at the time of CO2 doubling, i.e., at year 70 in a 1% per year compound CO2 increase experiment with a global coupled climate model. It is a measure of the strength and rapidity of the surface temperature response to greenhouse gas forcing.
Climate threshold
The point at which the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases triggers a significant climatic or environmental event, which is considered unalterable, such as widespread bleaching of corals or a collapse of oceanic circulation systems.
CO2-equivalent concentration
The concentration of carbon dioxide that would cause the same amount of radiative forcing as a given mixture of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
CO2-equivalent emission
The amount of CO2 emission that would cause the same radiative forcing as an emitted amount of a well mixed greenhouse gas, or a mixture of well mixed greenhouse gases, all multiplied with their respective Global Warming Potentials to take into account the differing times they remain in the atmosphere.
Co-benefits
The benefits of policies implemented for various reasons at the same time, acknowledging that most policies designed to address greenhouse gas mitigation have other, often at least equally important, rationales (e.g., related to objectives of development, sustainability, and equity). The term co-impact is also used in a more generic sense to cover both positive and negative side of the benefits. See also ancillary benefits.
Co-generation
The use of waste heat from thermal electricity-generation plants. The heat is e.g. condensing heat from steam turbines or hot flue gases exhausted from gas turbines, for industrial use, buildings or district heating. Synonym for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) generation.
Combined-cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT)
Power plant that combines two processes for generating electricity. First, gas or light fuel oil feeds a gas turbine that inevitably exhausts hot flue gases (>800°C). Second, heat recovered from these gases, with additional firing, is the source for producing steam that drives a steam turbine. The turbines rotate separate alternators.
It becomes an integrated CCGT when the fuel is syngas from a coal or biomass gasification reactor with exchange of energy flows between the gasification and CCGT plants.
Compliance
Compliance is whether and to what extent countries do adhere to the provisions of an accord. Compliance depends on implementing policies ordered, and on whether measures follow up the policies. Compliance is the degree to which the actors whose behaviour is targeted by the agreement, local government units, corporations, organizations or individuals, conform to the implementing obligations. See also implementation.
Conference of the Parties (COP)
The supreme body of the UNFCCC, comprising countries with right to vote that have ratified or acceded to the convention. The first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP-1) was held in Berlin (1995), followed by 2.Geneva (1996), 3.Kyoto (1997), 4.Buenos Aires (1998), 5.Bonn (1999), 6.The Hague/Bonn (2000, 2001), 7.Marrakech (2001), 8.Delhi (2002), 9.Milan (2003), 10.Buenos Aires (2004), 11.Montreal (2005), 12.Nairobi (2006). See also Meeting of the Parties (MOP).
Contingent Valuation Method (CVM)
CVM is an approach to quantitatively assess values assigned by people in monetary (willingness to pay) and non monetary (willingness to contribute with time, resources etc.) terms. It is a direct method to estimate economic values for ecosystem and environmental services. A survey of people are asked their willingness to pay for access to, or their willingness to accept compensation for removal of, a specific environmental service, based on a hypothetical scenario and description of the environmental service. See also values.
Cost
The consumption of resources such as labor time, capital, materials, fuels and so on as the consequence of an action. In economics all resources are valued at their opportunity cost, being the value of the most valuable alternative use of the resources. Costs are defined in a variety of ways and under a variety of assumptions that affect their value
Cost types include: administrative costs of planning, management, monitoring, audits, accounting, reporting, clerical activities, etc. associated with a project or programme; damage costs to ecosystems, economies and people due to negative effects from climate change; implementation costs of changing existing rules and regulation, capacity building efforts, information, training and education, etc. to put a policy into place; private costs are carried by individuals, companies or other private entities that undertake the action, where social costs include additionally the external costs on the environment and on society as a whole.
Costs can be expressed as total, average (unit, specific) being the total divided by the number of units of the item for which the cost is being assessed, and marginal or incremental costs as the cost of the last additional unit.
The perspectives adopted in this report are: Project level considers a “standalone” activity that is assumed not to have significant indirect economic impacts on markets and prices (both demand and supply) beyond the activity itself. The activity can be the implementation of specific technical facilities, infrastructure, demand-side regulations, information efforts, technical standards, etc. Technology level considers a specific greenhouse-gas mitigation technology, usually with several applications in different projects and sectors. The literature on technologies covers their technical characteristics, especially evidence on learning curves as the technology diffuses and matures. Sector level considers sector policies in a “partial-equilibrium” context, for which other sectors and the macroeconomic variables are assumed to be as given. The policies can include economic instruments related to prices, taxes, trade, and financing, specific large-scale investment projects, and demand-side regulation efforts. Macroeconomic level considers the impacts of policies on real income and output, employment and economic welfare across all sectors and markets. The policies include all sorts of economic policies, such as taxes, subsidies, monetary policies, specific investment programmes, and technology and innovation policies.
The negative of costs are benefits, and often both are considered together.
Cost-benefit analysis
Monetary measurement of all negative and positive impacts associated with a given action. Costs and benefits are compared in terms of their difference and/or ratio as an indicator of how a given investment or other policy effort pays off seen from the society’s point of view.
Cost-effectiveness analysis
A special case of cost-benefit analysis in which all the costs of a portfolio of projects are assessed in relation to a fixed policy goal. The policy goal in this case represents the benefits of the projects and all the other impacts are measured as costs or as negative costs (co-benefits). The policy goal can be, for example, a specified goal of emissions reductions of greenhouse gases.
Crediting period
The CDM crediting period is the time during which a project activity is able to generate GHG-emission reduction or CO2 removal certificates. Under certain conditions, the crediting period can be renewed up to two times.
Deforestation
The natural or anthropogenic process that converts forest land to non-forest. See afforestation and reforestation.
Demand-side management (DSM)
Policies and programmes for influencing the demand for goods and/or services. In the energy sector, DSM aims at reducing the demand for electricity and energy sources. DSM helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Dematerialization
The process by which economic activity is decoupled from matter–energy throughput, through processes such as eco-efficient production or industrial ecology, allowing environmental impact to fall per unit of economic activity.
Deposit-refund system
A deposit or fee (tax) is paid when acquiring a commodity and a refund or rebate is received for implementation of a specified action (mostly delivering the commodity at a particular place).
Desertification
This refers to land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification defines land degradation as a reduction or loss, in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas, of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rain-fed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest and woodlands resulting from land uses or from a process or combination of processes, including processes arising from human activities and habitation patterns, such as soil erosion caused by wind and/or water, deterioration of the physical, chemical and biological or economic properties of soil and long-term loss of natural vegetation.
Devegetation
This is loss of vegetation density within one land-cover class.
Development path
An evolution based on an array of technological, economic, social, institutional, cultural and biophysical characteristics that determine the interactions between human and natural systems, including production and consumption patterns in all countries, over time at a particular scale. Alternative development paths refer to different possible trajectories of development, the continuation of current trends being just one of the many paths.
Discounting
A mathematical operation making monetary (or other) amounts received or expended at different points in time (years) comparable across time. The operator uses a fixed or possibly time-varying discount rate (>0) from year to year that makes future value worth less today. In a descriptive discounting approach one accepts the discount rates people (savers and investors) actually apply in their day-to-day decisions (private discount rate). In a prescriptive (ethical or normative) discounting approach the discount rate is fixed from a social perspective, e.g. based on an ethical judgement about the interests of future generations (social discount rate).
District heating
Hot water (steam in old systems) is distributed from central stations to buildings and industries in a densely occupied area (a district, a city or an industrialized area such as the Ruhr or Saar in Germany). The insulated two-pipe network functions like a water-based central heating system in a building. The central heat sources can be waste-heat recovery at industrial processes, waste-incineration plants, cogeneration power plants or stand-alone boilers burning fossil fuels or biomass.
Double dividend
The extent to which revenue-generating instruments, such as carbon taxes or auctioned (tradable) carbon emission permits can (1) limit or reduce GHG emissions and (2) offset at least part of the potential welfare losses of climate policies through recycling the revenue in the economy to reduce other taxes likely to cause distortions. In a world with involuntary unemployment, the climate change policy adopted may have an effect (a positive or negative ‘third dividend’) on employment. Weak double dividend occurs as long as there is a revenue-recycling effect. That is, revenues are recycled through reductions in the marginal rates of distorting taxes. Strong double dividend requires that the (beneficial) revenue-recycling effect more than offsets the combination of the primary cost and in this case, the net cost of abatement is negative. See also interaction effect.