Glossary
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A/R Projects
Afforestation and Reforestation Projects
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AA and AAU
Assigned Amount and Assigned Amount Units.
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AB 32 (Assembly Bill 32)
The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 is an environmental law in California. In 2006, the Legislature passed and Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which set the 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal into law. It directed the California Air Resources Board (ARB or Board) to begin developing discrete early actions to reduce greenhouse gases while also preparing a scoping plan to identify how best to reach the 2020 limit.
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Abatement
The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and/or the sequestration of greenhouse gases - i.e. the amount by which a project reduces net greenhouse gas emissions. This is also known as the impact of the project or measure.
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Accreditation Panel (CDM AP)
The CDM Accreditation Panel was established to support the Executive Board in the accreditation of designated operational entities and related functions.
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Accredited Independent Entity (AIE)
An accredited independent entity conducts the validation of the project design document for a Joint Implementation project. This role is similar to the Designate Operating Entity under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
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Ad-Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I countries under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP)
The Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex 1 Parties under the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is most commonly referred to by its acronym AWG-KP, was established to help develop an agreement to follow on from the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
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Ad-Hoc Working Group on Long-term cooperative action under the Convention (AWG-LCA)
The Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) is an official body agreed to at the COP13 conference in Bali to facilitate detailed discussions on ways to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change beyond the current expiry date of the Kyoto Protocol. AWG-LCA has the task of seeking to resolve as many of the details of a post-2012 climate change agreement in order to enable an agreed outcome to be adopted at the COP15 conference to be held in Copenhagen in late November and early December 2009.
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Adaptation fund
A fund generated by charging an adaptation levy on Certified Emission Reductions generated by Clean Development Mechanism projects. The purpose of the fund is to help particularly vulnerable developing countries meet the costs of adapting to a changing climate.
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Adaptation Levy
A levy is applied to all Clean Development Mechanism projects except those in least developed countries (LDCs), to create the Adaptation Fund. It amounts to 2% of the certificates earned by a project activity. The fund will be used to assist LDCs to adapt to climate change.
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Additionality
A vital test of eligibility for projects designed to generate carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol's CDM and JI mechanisms, as well as other carbon offset schemes. The principle is that a project should only be able to earn credits if the GHG emission reductions produced by the project are additional to what happened in the absence of carbon credit cashflow incentive.
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Additionality tool
Guidelines developed by the CDM Executive Board to assess additionality based on financial, technological and other barriers. Additionality established using the CDM Additionality Tool is very robust and offers the highest level of assurance.
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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 sources1.
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Afforestation and Reforestation (A/R) Projects
Term given to the class of projects devoted to the planting of trees on unforested land for carbon emissions reduction and other environmental benefits.
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AFOLU
Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use
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Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS)
Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is a coalition of Small Island and low-lying coastal countries founded in 1990. The main purpose of the alliance is to consolidate the voices of Small Island developing states to address global climate change. AOSIS has been very active from its inception putting forward the first draft text in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations as early as 1994.
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Allocation
The distribution of allowances to participants in emissions trading scheme or other entities.
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Allowance
An allowed, possibly tradable, right-to-emit in a country that has taken on an emissions cap under the Kyoto Protocol. The units for allowances are tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
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American Carbon Registry
The American Carbon Registry provides an electronic registry system for Members to transparently register serialized offsets as well as record the purchase, sale and retirement of project-based offsets, branded as Emission Reduction Tons ("ERTs"). Members can also report their verified corporate GHG inventories ("carbon footprint") on the Registry.
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Annex B Countries
Annex B countries are defined in Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol. These are industrialised countries with greenhouse gas emissions limitations (which may nevertheless be a net increase in emissions) or a reduction commitment. The annex identifies those countries currently making a transition to a market economy. The only difference between the Annex I and Annex B countries, is that Turkey and Belarus are not Annex B countries.
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Annex I Countries
Annex I is an Annex in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Annex I countries are those which committed themselves as a group to reducing their emissions of the six greenhouses gases by at least 5% below 1990 levels over the period between 2008 and 2012. Specific targets vary from country to country.
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Annex II Countries
The subset of Annex I/B countries that have an obligation to provide technology and financial assistance to help developing countries reduce emissions. The Annex II countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
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Annex Z
Annex Z of the Marrakesh Accords (COP7) defines the maximum amount of forest management credits each Annex I country can use to meet its Kyoto commitments.
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Approved Consolidated Methodology (ACM)
Large-scale methodology to calculate emission reductions for a project, approved for use by the Executive Board of the CDM. Consolidated from a number of approved methodologies (AMs).
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Approved Methodology (AM)
Methodology approved by the CDM Executive Board to calculate emission reductions for a CDM project that is not small-scale and not an A/R project (see below).
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Asia-Pacific Partnership
The Asia-Pacific climate pact is an international climate change agreement. Its initiators in 2005 were the United States and Australia, the only two industrialised nations not to have ratified the Kyoto treaty at that time (Australia since ratified in 2007). The group also includes China, India, Japan, South Korea and now Canada. APP rejects Kyoto-style emission reduction targets in favour of encouraging business to invest in clean fossil-fuel technology and renewable energy.
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Assigned Amount (AA) and Assigned Amount Units (AAUs)
The assigned amount is the total volume of greenhouse gases that each Annex B country is allowed to emit during the first commitment period (see explanation below) of the Kyoto Protocol. An Assigned Amount Unit (AAU) is a tradable unit of 1 tonne CO2e.
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Auctioning
Common term used for the sale of allowances, as opposed to allocating them for free.
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