Glossary E-I
Economies in Transition (EITs)
Countries with their economies changing from a planned economic system to a market economy.
Economies of scale (scale economies)
The unit cost of an activity declines when the activity is extended (e.g., more units are produced).
Ecosystem
A system of living organisms interacting with each other and their physical environment. The boundaries of what could be called an ecosystem are somewhat arbitrary, depending on the focus of interest or study. Thus, the extent of an ecosystem may range from very small spatial scales to the entire planet Earth ultimately.
Emissions Direct / Indirect
Direct emissions or “point of emission” are defined at the point in the energy chain where they are released and are attributed to that point in the energy chain, whether a sector, a technology or an activity. E.g. emissions from coal-fired power plants are considered direct emissions from the energy supply sector. Indirect emissions or emissions “allocated to the end-use sector” refer to the energy use in end-use sectors and account for the emissions associated with the upstream production of the end-use energy. E.g. some emissions associated with electricity generation can be attributed to the buildings sector corresponding to the building sector’s use of electricity.
Emission factor
An emission factor is the rate of emission per unit of activity, output or input. E.g. a particular fossil fuel power plant has a CO2 emission factor of 0.765 kg/kWh generated.
Emission permit
An emission permit is a non-transferable or tradable entitlement allocated by a government to a legal entity (company or other emitter) to emit a specified amount of a substance. A tradable permit is an economic policy instrument under which rights to discharge pollution - in this case an amount of greenhouse gas emissions - can be exchanged through either a free or a controlled permit-market.
Emission quota
The portion of total allowable emissions assigned to a country or group of countries within a framework of maximum total emissions.
Emissions Reduction Unit (ERU)
Equal to one metric tonne of CO2-equivalent emissions reduced or sequestered arising from a Joint Implementation (defined in Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol) project. See also Certified Emission Reduction Unit and emissions trading.
Emission standard
A level of emission that by law or by voluntary agreement may not be exceeded. Many standards use emission factors in their prescription and therefore do not impose absolute limits on the emissions.
Emissions trading
A market-based approach to achieving environmental objectives. It allows those reducing GHG emissions below their emission cap to use or trade the excess reductions to offset emissions at another source inside or outside the country. In general, trading can occur at the intra-company, domestic, and international levels. The Second Assessment Report by the IPCC adopted the convention of using permits for domestic trading systems and quotas for international trading systems. Emissions trading under Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol is a tradable quota system based on the assigned amounts calculated from the emission reduction and limitation commitments listed in Annex B of the Protocol.
Emission trajectories
These are projections of future emission pathways, or observed emission patterns.
Energy
The amount of work or heat delivered. Energy is classified in a variety of types and becomes useful to human ends when it flows from one place to another or is converted from one type into another. Primary energy (also referred to as energy sources) is the energy embodied in natural resources (e.g., coal, crude oil, natural gas, uranium) that has not undergone any anthropogenic conversion. It is transformed into secondary energy by cleaning (natural gas), refining (oil in oil products) or by conversion into electricity or heat. When the secondary energy is delivered at the end-use facilities it is called final energy (e.g., electricity at the wall outlet), where it becomes usable energy (e.g., light). Daily, the sun supplies large quantities of energy as rainfall, winds, radiation, etc. Some share is stored in biomass or rivers that can be harvested by men. Some share is directly usable such as daylight, ventilation or ambient heat. Renewable energy is obtained from the continuing or repetitive currents of energy occurring in the natural environment and includes non-carbon technologies such as solar energy, hydropower, wind, tide and waves and geothermal heat, as well as carbon-neutral technologies such as biomass. Embodied energy is the energy used to produce a material substance (such as processed metals or building materials), taking into account energy used at the manufacturing facility (zero order), energy used in producing the materials that are used in the manufacturing facility (first order), and so on.
Energy efficiency
The ratio of useful energy output of a system, conversion process or activity to its energy input.
Energy intensity
The ratio of energy use to economic output. At the national level, energy intensity is the ratio of total domestic primary energy use or final energy use to Gross Domestic Product. See also specific energy use
Energy security
The various security measures that a given nation, or the global community as a whole, must carry out to maintain an adequate energy supply.
Energy Service Company (ESCO)
A company that offers energy services to end-users, guarantees the energy savings to be achieved tying them directly to its remuneration, as well as finances or assists in acquiring financing for the operation of the energy system, and retains an on-going role in monitoring the savings over the financing term.
Environmental effectiveness
The extent to which a measure, policy or instrument produces a decided, decisive or desired environmental effect.
Environmentally sustainable technologies
Technologies that are less polluting, use resources in a more sustainable manner, recycle more of their wastes and products, and handle residual wastes in a more acceptable manner than the technologies that they substitute. They are also more compatible with nationally determined socio-economic, cultural and environmental priorities.
Evidence
Information or signs indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid. In this Report, the degree of evidence reflects the amount of scientific/technical information on which the Lead Authors are basing their findings.
Externality / External cost / External benefit
Externalities arise from a human activity, when agents responsible for the activity do not take full account of the activity’s impact on others’ production and consumption possibilities, while there exists no compensation for such impact. When the impact is negative, so are external costs. When positive they are referred to as external benefits.
Feed-in tariff
The price per unit of electricity that a utility or power supplier has to pay for distributed or renewable electricity fed into the grid by non-utility generators. A public authority regulates the tariff.
Flaring
Open air burning of waste gases and volatile liquids, through a chimney, at oil wells or rigs, in refineries or chemical plants and at landfills.
Forecast
Projected outcome from established physical, technological, economic, social, behavioral, etc. patterns.
Forest
Defined under the Kyoto Protocol as a minimum area of land of 0.05-1.0 ha with tree-crown cover (or equivalent stocking level) of more than 10-30 % with trees with the potential to reach a minimum height of 2-5 m at maturity in situ. A forest may consist either of closed forest formations where trees of various storey and undergrowth cover a high proportion of the ground or of open forest. Young natural stands and all plantations that have yet to reach a crown density of 10-30 % or tree height of 2-5 m are included under forest, as are areas normally forming part of the forest area that are temporarily un-stocked as a result of human intervention such as harvesting or natural causes but which are expected to revert to forest. See also Afforestation, Deforestation and Reforestation.
Fossil fuels
Carbon-based fuels from fossil hydrocarbon deposits, including coal, peat, oil and natural gas.
Free Rider
One who benefits from a common good without contributing to its creation or preservation.
Fuel cell
A fuel cell generates electricity in a direct and continuous way from the controlled electrochemical reaction of hydrogen or another fuel and oxygen. With hydrogen as fuel it emits only water and heat (no CO2) and the heat can be utilized (see cogeneration).
Fuel switching
In general, this is substituting fuel A for fuel B. In the climate-change discussion it is implicit that fuel A has lower carbon content than fuel B, e.g., natural gas for coal.
Full-cost pricing
Setting the final prices of goods and services to include both the private costs of inputs and the external costs created by their production and use.
G77/China
See Group of 77 and China.
General circulation (climate) model (GCM)
A numerical representation of the climate system based on the physical, chemical and biological properties of its components, their interactions and feedback processes, and accounting for all or some of its known properties. The climate system can be represented by models of varying complexity, i.e. for any one component or combination of components a hierarchy of models can be identified, differing in such aspects as the number of spatial dimensions, the extent to which physical, chemical or biological processes are explicitly represented, or the level at which the parameters are assessed empirically. Coupled atmosphere/ocean/sea-ice General Circulation Models provide a comprehensive representation of the climate system. There is an evolution towards more complex models with active chemistry and biology.
General equilibrium analysis
General equilibrium analysis considers simultaneously all the markets and feedback effects among these markets in an economy leading to market clearance. See also market equilibrium.
Geo-engineering
Technological efforts to stabilize the climate system by direct intervention in the energy balance of the Earth for reducing global warming
Global Environmental Facility (GEF)
The Global Environment Facility (GEF), established in 1991, helps developing countries fund projects and programmes that protect the global environment. GEF grants support projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants
Global warming
Global warming refers to the gradual increase, observed or projected, in global surface temperature, as one of the consequences of radiative forcing caused by anthropogenic emissions.
Global Warming Potential (GWP)
An index, based upon radiative properties of well mixed greenhouse gases, measuring the radiative forcing of a unit mass of a given well mixed greenhouse gas in today’s atmosphere integrated over a chosen time horizon, relative to that of CO2. The GWP represents the combined effect of the differing lengths of time that these gases remain in the atmosphere and their relative effectiveness in absorbing outgoing infrared radiation. The Kyoto Protocol is based on GWPs from pulse emissions over a 100-year time frame.
Green accounting
Attempts to integrate into macroeconomic studies a broader set of social welfare measures, covering e.g., social, environmental, and development oriented policy aspects. Green accounting includes both monetary valuations that attempt to calculate a ‘green national product’ with the economic damage by pollutants subtracted from the national product, and accounting systems that include quantitative non-monetary pollution, depletion and other data.
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases effectively absorb infrared radiation, emitted by the Earth’s surface, by the atmosphere itself due to the same gases and by clouds. Atmospheric radiation is emitted to all sides, including downward to the Earth’s surface. Thus, greenhouse gases trap heat within the surface-troposphere system. This is called the greenhouse effect.
Thermal infrared radiation in the troposphere is strongly coupled to the temperature at the altitude at which it is emitted. In the troposphere, the temperature generally decreases with height. Effectively, infrared radiation emitted to space originates from an altitude with a temperature of, on average, –19°C, in balance with the net incoming solar radiation, whereas the Earth’s surface is kept at a much higher temperature of, on average, +14°C.
An increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases leads to an increased infrared opacity of the atmosphere and therefore to an effective radiation into space from a higher altitude at a lower temperature. This causes a radiative forcing that leads to an enhancement of the greenhouse effect, the so-called enhanced greenhouse effect.
Greenhouse gases (GHGs)
Greenhouse gases are those gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere and clouds. This property causes the greenhouse effect. Water vapour (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and ozone (O3) are the primary greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere. Moreover, there are a number of entirely human-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as the halocarbons and other chlorine- and bromine-containing substances, dealt with under the Montreal Protocol. Besides carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane, the Kyoto Protocol deals with the greenhouse gases sulphur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons, and perfluorocarbons.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The sum of gross value added, at purchasers’ prices, by all resident and non-resident producers in the economy, plus any taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products in a country or a geographic region for a given period, normally one year. It is calculated without deducting for depreciation of fabricated assets or depletion and degradation of natural resources.
Gross National Product (GNP)
GNP is a measure of national income. It measures value added from domestic and foreign sources claimed by residents. GNP comprises Gross Domestic Product plus net receipts of primary income from non-resident income.
Gross World Product
An aggregation of the individual country’s Gross Domestic Products to obtain the sum for the world.
Group of 77 and China (G77/China)
Originally 77, now more than 130, developing countries that act as a major negotiating bloc in the UNFCCC process. G77/China is also referred to as Non-Annex I countries in the context of the UNFCCC.
Governance
The way government is understood has changed in response to social, economic and technological changes over recent decades. There is a corresponding shift from government defined strictly by the nation-state to a more inclusive concept of governance, recognizing the contributions of various levels of government (global, international, regional, local) and the roles of the private sector, of non-governmental actors and of civil society.
Hot air
Under the terms of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, national emission targets in Annex B are expressed relative to emissions in the year 1990. For countries in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe this target has proven to be higher than their current and projected emissions for reasons unrelated to climate-change mitigation activities. Russia and Ukraine, in particular, are expected to have a substantial volume of excess emission allowances over the period 2008-2012 relative to their forecast emissions. These allowances are sometimes referred to as hot air because, while they can be traded under the Kyoto Protocol’s flexibility mechanisms, they did not result from mitigation activities.
Hybrid vehicle
Any vehicle that employs two sources of propulsion, especially a vehicle that combines an internal combustion engine with an electric motor.
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
One of the six gases or groups of gases to be curbed under the Kyoto Protocol. They are produced commercially as a substitute for chlorofluorocarbons. HFCs are largely used in refrigeration and semiconductor manufacturing. Their Global Warming Potentials range from 1,300 to 11,700.
Implementation
Implementation describes the actions taken to meet commitments under a treaty and encompasses legal and effective phases. Legal implementation refers to legislation, regulations, judicial decrees, including other actions such as efforts to administer progress, which governments take to translate international accords into domestic law and policy. Effective implementation needs policies and programmes that induce changes in the behaviour and decisions of target groups. Target groups then take effective measures of mitigation and adaptation.
Income elasticity (of demand)
This is the ratio of the percentage change in quantity of demand for a good or service to a one percentage change in income. For most goods and services, demand goes up when income grows, making income elasticity positive. When the elasticity is less than one, goods and services are called necessities.
Industrial ecology
The relationship of a particular industry with its environment. It often refers to the conscious planning of industrial processes to minimize their negative externalities (e.g., by heat and materials cascading).
Inertia
In the context of climate-change mitigation, inertia relates to the difficulty of change resulting from pre-existing conditions within society such as physical man-made capital, natural capital and social non-physical capital, including institutions, regulations and norms. Existing structures lock in societies, making change more difficult.
Integrated assessment
A method of analysis that combines results and models from the physical, biological, economic and social sciences, and the interactions between these components in a consistent framework to evaluate the status and the consequences of environmental change and the policy responses to it.
Integrated Design Process (IDP) of buildings
Optimizing the orientation and shape of buildings and providing high-performance envelopes for minimizing heating and cooling loads. Passive techniques for heat transfer control, ventilation and daylight access reduce energy loads further. Properly sized and controlled, efficient mechanical systems address the left-over loads. IDP requires an iterative design process involving all the major stakeholders from building users to equipment suppliers, and can achieve 30-75% savings in energy use in new buildings at little or no additional investment cost.
Intelligent controls
In this report, the notion of ‘intelligent control’ refers to the application of information technology in buildings to control heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and electricity use effectively. It requires effective monitoring of parameters such as temperature, convection, moisture, etc., with appropriate control measurements (‘smart metering’).
Interaction effect
The consequence of the interaction of climate-change policy instruments with existing domestic tax systems, including both cost-increasing tax interaction and cost-reducing revenue-recycling effect. The former reflects the impact that greenhouse gas policies can have on labour and capital markets through their effects on real wages and the real return to capital. Restricting allowable GHG emissions, raises the carbon price and so the costs of production and the prices of output, thus reducing the real return to labour and capital. With policies that raise revenue for the government, carbon taxes and auctioned permits, the revenues can be recycled to reduce existing distortional taxes. See also double dividend.
Intergovernmental Organization (IGO)
Organizations constituted of governments. Examples include the World Bank, the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and other UN and regional organizations. The Climate Convention allows accreditation of these IGOs to attend negotiating sessions.
International Energy Agency (IEA)
Established in 1974, the agency is linked with the OECD. It enables OECD member countries to take joint measures to meet oil supply emergencies, to share energy information, to coordinate their energy policies, and to cooperate in developing rational energy use programmes.