Glossary
There is a lot of information out there about climate change and this can be confusing – so we have written this glossary with definitions of key climate-related words and phrases we use in the Climate Ready Clyde programme.
We hope this will help people understand more about our work, but if you think we should add any other definitions please email us at climatereadyclyde@sniffer.org.uk
Technical definitions
Climate change
Climate change is the long-term shift in global weather patterns (different to local weather, which can change day to day). Scientists agree that humans are responsible for recent climate change, mainly by burning fossil fuels. This adds heat-trapping gases to the Earth’s atmosphere – causing impacts like hotter temperatures, sea level rise, disappearing glaciers, and loss of life.
In the Glasgow City Region, the main impacts of climate change will be increasing extreme weather, heavier rainfall in winter and reduced rainfall in summer, higher average temperatures, more sea level rise and coastal erosion, and increased likelihood of flooding. The increase of rain and heavy downpours are already causing more flooding which damages infrastructure and disrupts the day-to-day services that we rely on. Roads, bridges, rail lines, public buildings are at significant risk as extreme weather events like storms, flooding and heatwaves are becoming more frequent. Climate change will damage our economy and deepen other inequalities by impacting more on our most vulnerable populations.
Climate change adaptation
Climate change adaptation is all the actions and solutions that a country, a region, a city or a community can develop and put in place to build more resilient societies and economies. It also involves responding to the impacts of climate change that are already happening or we expect to happen. These can include building flood defences or setting up early weather warning systems. Other solutions are redesigning communication systems, business operations and government policies.
People around the world are already experiencing the impacts of climate change. Without drastic action, adapting in the future will be more difficult and costly. Successful climate adaptation will involve organisations, businesses, communities and populations working together.
Climate change mitigation
Climate change mitigation tries to reduce or prevent the emission of greenhouse gases (which leads to more climate change). We can limit emissions using new technologies and renewable energies (including wind and solar power). We can also make older equipment more energy efficient and change what we buy, what we eat, and the way we travel.
Climate resilience
Limiting our emissions of greenhouse gases will help avert the worst potential impacts of climate change, but some of these impacts are unavoidable due to past emissions. Climate resilience is the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate.
Fossil fuels
Coal, oil and natural gas are examples of fossil fuels that were created by decomposing animals and plants in the earth’s crust. Fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource that takes millions of years to create; our supply of fossil fuels will eventually run out. The burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which causes global heating.
Greenhouse gases
Greenhouse gases are gases in the earth’s atmosphere that trap heat from the sun. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, water vapour, ozone and methane.
Greenhouse gas effect
The greenhouse gas effect is when the gases in the Earth’s atmosphere trap the sun’s heat, making the earth warmer. Human activities are changing the earth’s natural greenhouse gas effect by burning fossil fuels. Too many greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere trap more and more heat from the sun, increasing the earth’s temperature.
Net-zero emissions
Net-zero emissions attempts to restore the Earth’s natural greenhouse gas balance by stopping new carbon dioxide emissions and absorbing existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. To meet a goal of net-zero, any new greenhouse gas emissions must be as low as possible. These must be offset by a process that reduces greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (such as planting trees).
Scotland net-zero emissions
Scotland set a target date for net-zero emissions of all greenhouse gasses by 2045 in the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019.
Social definitions
Climate justice
Climate justice refers to issues around the fact that climate change will have bigger impacts on more vulnerable people and places, and that any policy or response from decision makers needs to be fair to prepare for and protect people from these unequal impacts. One definition is:
“Ensuring that collectively and individually we have the ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from climate change impacts – and the policies to mitigate or adapt to them – by considering existing vulnerabilities, resources and capabilities”
Just resilience
At all scales, the most vulnerable people and communities are most at risk from climate change impacts, have the least capacity to adapt, and are the least likely to be heard, recognised and benefit from adaptation actions.
Just resilience strategies acknowledge the uneven distribution of climate change impacts on people and places, and limitations of resources and capabilities (social, economic, political, health-related etc.) to adapt and to benefit from adaptation actions. Just resilience means “leaving no-one behind” when adapting our society and systems to withstand the impacts of climate change.
Systemic change (also known as transformational change)
A system is a set of connected things that operate together. The world is made up of systems. There are lots of connections and interactions between many parts of these systems, which means a change in one system can have wider consequences.
Climate change can affect many systems at once, which requires changing how we reduce these impacts. We can make changes to more than one part of a system to create a different system in the future. This type of action is called systemic or transformational change.