Carbon Jargon

Additionality:  A requirement that a project or activity provide abatement that is additional to any that would occur in the absence of the project or activity, and that is additional to abatement that would occur anyway to meet Australia's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme cap or International Target.

Annex I countries:  Countries listed in Annex I to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including all developed (OECD) countries and the countries in transition in central and Eastern Europe (including Russia and Ukraine).  In the context of the Kyoto Protocol, 'Annex I country' is used to refer to a party included in Annex I to the UNFCCC with a commitment inscribed in Annex B to the Kyoto Protocol.

Australian Emissions Unit (AEU):  An emissions unit issued under the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), also referred to as a 'carbon pollution permit'.

Business unit:  A unit that is recognised by an entity as having administrative responsibility for one or more facilities of the corporation.

Carbon dioxide equivalence (CO₂-e):  A standard measure that takes account of the different global warming potentials of greenhouse gases and expresses the cumulative effect in a common unit.

Carbon footprint:  A measure of the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions attributable to an activity commonly used at an individual, household, organisation or product level.

Carbon neutrality:  Commonly refers to a situation where the net emissions associated with a product or an organisation's activities are equal to zero through the acquisition and retirement of carbon offsets that meet additionality criteria. 

Carbon offset:  Represents a reduction in greenhouse gases, or enhancement of greenhouse gas removal from the atmosphere by sinks, relative to a business-as-usual baseline. Carbon offsets are tradable and often used to negate (or offset) all or part of another entity's emissions.

Carbon sink: A natural or manmade reservoir that accumulates and stores carbon dioxide for an indefinite period.

Certified Emission Reduction (CER):  A Kyoto unit corresponding to one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, and issued for verified emission reductions or removals achieved by projects approved under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).  CDM projects undertaking afforestation and reforestation activities issue temporary and long term units known as tCERs and lCERs, which must be replaced after a specified period.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM):  The CDM allows greenhouse gas emission reduction projects to take place in countries that have no emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol, yet are signatories.  The CDM is defined in Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol.

Emission factor:   A factor that gives the kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted per unit of activity.

Emissions Reduction Unit (ERU):  A Kyoto unit corresponding to one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions reduced or sequestered arising from a Joint Implementation (defined in Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol) project.

Facility:  An activity, or a series of activities (including ancillary activities), that involve the production of greenhouse gas emissions, the production of energy or the consumption of energy and that form a single undertaking or enterprise and meet the requirements of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Regulations.

Greenhouse gases:  The atmospheric gases responsible for causing global warming and climate change. The six Kyoto Protocol classes of greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), hydro-fluorocarbons (HFCs), per-fluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆).

International target: The greenhouse gas emissions target that Australia has committed to meet by 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol and the target agreed for Australia in any replacement to the Kyoto Protocol. 

Joint Implementation (JI):  A market-based implementation mechanism defined in Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol, allowing Annex I countries or companies from these countries to implement projects jointly that limit or reduce emissions or enhance sinks, and to share the ERUs.

Kyoto Protocol:  An international treaty created under the UNFCCC in 1997.  It entered into force in 2005.  Among other things, the Kyoto Protocol sets binding targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries and countries in transition.  It includes individual emission reduction targets for Annex I countries to be met within the first commitment period of 2008-12.

Kyoto unit: An emissions unit recognised for compliance under the Kyoto Protocol.  Kyoto units include Assigned Amount Units (AAUs), CERs (including tCERs and lCERs), ERUs and Removal Units (RMUs).

Life cycle assessment: The compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle.

National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS): Government Standard providing guidance on what constitutes a genuine, additional voluntary offset in the context of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). It sets a voluntary minimum standard for: carbon offset eligibility and generation; carbon footprint calculation; achieving carbon neutrality; and audit and verification of carbon claims.

National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) System:  The national reporting framework for information related to the greenhouse gas emissions, and energy production and use of corporations operating in Australia.  The framework is established under Commonwealth legislation, which makes registration and reporting mandatory for corporations whose greenhouse gas emissions or energy production or use meet certain thresholds. 

Non-Annex I Countries: Parties classified in the low-income group under the Kyoto Protocol, with very few classified as middle-income. They are not obligated by the limits of emissions in the Kyoto Protocol. Fast growing economy countries like China, South Africa, India and Brazil are still in this non-obligated group.

Offset:  See carbon offset.

Operational control:  The greatest authority to introduce and implement any or all of the following for the Facility: (i) operating policies; (ii) health and safety policies; (iii) environmental policies. Only one corporation can have operational control over a Facility at any time.

Permanence:  With regard to offsets, permanence requires the generation of offsets to have actually occurred and the carbon stored or sequestered not to be released into the atmosphere in the future.

Removal Unit (RMU): A Kyoto unit corresponding to one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions sequestered and issued for removals of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by eligible land use, land-use change and forestry activities.

Scope 1 emissions: The release of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as a direct result of activities at a Facility.

Scope 2 emissions: The release of greenhouse gas as a result of electricity generation, heating, cooling or steam that is consumed by a Facility.

Scope 3 emissions:  The release of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere that is generated in the wider economy as a consequence of a facility's activities but that are physically produced by another Facility.

Sequestration:  The removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide, either through biological processes (for example, photosynthesis in plants and trees), or geological processes (for example, storage of carbon dioxide in underground reservoirs).

Sink: See carbon sink.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC):  An international treaty, adopted in 1992, aimed at achieving the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

Voluntary Carbon Unit (VCU): A unit corresponding to one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions reduced, certified and issued under the Voluntary Carbon Standard.

Voluntary Emissions Reduction (VER): Emission reduction units that have been generated according to defined voluntary standards.