Jargon Buster

When related to climate change, adaptation means adjusting our world to cope with the impacts of a warmer climate, for example, preparing for more regular and intense floods, protecting food supplies from climate impacts. It’s usually used alongside the term ‘mitigation’.

Any fuel that is made from plant or animal waste. Since these renew naturally, biofuels are considered a source of renewable energy, unlike fossil fuels.

A carbon budget is a maximum amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted in a certain timeframe. The UK’s carbon budgets are timetabled at five-year intervals.

The process of capturing and storing CO2 produced during an industrial process. This is a costly technology which is still in development.

The total of all emissions of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by an individual, organisation or community.

An activity is carbon neutral if it creates no added carbon dioxide (CO2) overall. When emissions can’t be avoided altogether, they are balanced out by activities that remove carbon from the atmosphere, also known as carbon offsets.

A carbon offset is a process of compensating for carbon dioxide emissions by investing in schemes that remove carbon from the atmosphere or reduce carbon emissions.

The practice of removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and storing it – one of the many approaches being taken to tackle climate change. It can also occur naturally in places like forests and oceans as they act as carbon sinks.

Climate change is a long-term change in the average weather patterns that define Earth’s local, regional and global climates, which is caused by human activities such as fossil fuel burning.

Remove the carbon generating part of the activity where fossil fuels are burnt, that is, by switching to zero or low carbon energy alternatives.

Clearing an area of trees to convert the land to a new use. Removing the trees means their carbon absorbing benefits are lost.

District heating (also known as heat networks) is a system in which heating, cooling or hot water are generated at a central source and distributed to various buildings through a network of pipes.

Anything that is ‘emitted’ or ‘sent out’, usually a gas or element such as heat or light. We typically talk about greenhouse gas emissions.

Energiesprong (Dutch for ‘Energy Leap’) is an approach to housing that guarantees homes will be warm and affordable to heat and power. It transforms existing homes to make them more energy efficient. Energiesprong homes produce as much renewable energy as they consume over the course of a year, making the most of every opportunity to generate renewable power, and then using it efficiently.

A fuel made from decomposed plants and animals over millions of years, such as coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels are found in the Earth’s crust and contain carbon and hydrogen which are released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, when burned for energy,

Energy produced by using the internal heat of the earth.

These are all the gases that create the greenhouse effect on the Earth that is causing climate change, including: Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O) and Fluorinated Gases (F-Gases).

Heat networks (also known as district heating) are systems in which heating, cooling or hot water are generated at a central source and distributed to more than one user through a network of pipes.

A heat pump is a piece of equipment that can take heat from elsewhere (the air or the ground for example) and transfer it into a building. Heat pumps are powered by electricity. Some can also work in reverse and be used for cooling.

Hydrogen is a fuel that can be burned without releasing greenhouse gases. Pure hydrogen is rarely found naturally, it must be produced by separating it from other components through a chemical reaction. There are different procedures to create hydrogen. Each type of hydrogen has a colour depending on how it is produced. The main types are Grey, Blue and Green Hydrogen. The processes of creating each type of hydrogen each produce different amounts of greenhouse gases.

Blue hydrogen is a fuel produced from methane (the main part of natural gas). Industrial processes are then used to capture and store the carbon dioxide (CO2) generated in the process in the ground.

Green hydrogen is created through a process called electrolysis. It means that water molecules are split into their parts: two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. This process is powered by renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind. So, it can be said that green hydrogen is the only one that does not generate carbon emissions. Only about 0.1% of all hydrogen is produced in this way currently.

Grey hydrogen is created by using natural gas (mostly methane). Around 10 tons carbon dioxide (CO2) are released for every ton of hydrogen produced in this way.

This means making the impacts of climate change less severe by preventing or reducing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere.

Naturally occurring resources such as soil, trees and plants, both on land and in our water ways.

Net zero refers to a stage when we stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and stop further global warming. Net Zero will be achieved when a state of balance between the greenhouse gases we put into the atmosphere and those we take out is reached. Achieving Net Zero means making drastic cuts to our emissions and increasing the amount of carbon sinks that soak up the remaining emissions.