Any terms you are unsure about? Scroll down to a specific term to find a quick and simple definition to get you up to date with gender & climate policy language! Missing a term? Feel free to comment below to suggest terms we should add!

B

Biodiversity

Sometimes used to represent species richness, it is synonymous with biological diversity - which means the diversity of life forms on Earth and all living things that are part of an ecosystem, from plants and animals to microorganisms. To understand what biodiversity is, we must consider the term on two different levels: all forms of life, as well as the genes contained in each individual, and the ecosystems, in which the existence of a species directly affects many others. It is not known how many plant and animal species there are in the world, but estimates vary between 10 and 50 million - scientists have classified and named only 1.5 million species.

C

Capacity-building/Knowledge sharing 

Capacity building is the process of developing and strengthening skills, instincts, abilities, processes and resources so that organizations and communities can survive, adapt, and thrive in an ever-evolving world. Knowledge sharing is the exchange of critical information within and across the different organizations and communities so that a bridge is created between individual and organizational knowledge, which results in the improvement of the absorptive and innovative capacity of those who participate. Capacity-building can be used in many different areas, but it is very important when we discuss climate and gender as it aims to make way for the understanding of knowledge between affected people.

Carbon Cycle 

The carbon cycle is the series of processes by which carbon circulates through the biosphere, the atmosphere and the oceans. Through this process, carbon compounds flow through different reservoirs of the environment, involving the incorporation of carbon dioxide into living tissue by photosynthesis and its return to the atmosphere through respiration, the decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels. During the cycle, if carbon shifts from one reservoir and releases a higher level than normal into the atmosphere, the results are warmer temperatures on Earth. This is why carbon dioxide is one of the main greenhouse gasses that affect the planet’s temperature. Understanding the carbon cycle is fundamental for understanding climate change and how carbon emissions can be reduced. 

Carbon Footprint 

Carbon footprint has been used to measure the climate change impact of something. It works by calculating the amount of greenhouse gases and specifically carbon dioxide emitted by an activity, such as a person's activities (e.g. traveling, shopping, etc) or a product's manufacture and transport, during a given period. Since all greenhouse gases have different levels of impact on the environment, they are measured in CO2 equivalents when calculating the carbon footprint, making it easier to communicate and monitor.

Carbon Market

The international carbon market is a direct result of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the international commitments countries have adopted to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It can be understood as a trading system in which countries and private organizations can buy and sell carbon credits that compensate for their own emissions. If they have overshot emissions during a specific time-frame, they can buy credits from companies that aim to reduce or remove emissions. If they have not reached their emissions quota, they can sell the difference in credits to another company that has. There are two main types of carbon markets: compliance and voluntary. The first one results from regulatory requirements, as in the Paris Agreement for example. The second is a consequence of buying and selling on a voluntary basis mainly from private organizations.  

Carbon Neutrality

Carbon neutrality is the ultimate aim for a carbon market and a central element of the Paris Agreement. While it is similar to the concept of net-zero emissions, carbon neutrality strives to offset carbon emissions by striking a balance: what you emit into the atmosphere, you remove. Net-zero emissions, on the other hand, requires removing greenhouse emissions altogether from a socioeconomic activity, meaning that there is no need for capturing or offsetting carbon. Removing carbon from the atmosphere can be done via carbon sinks, which are natural or artificial systems that absorb carbon, such as forests, oceans, landfills or carbon storage processes. No artificial carbon sink can offset the necessary amount of emissions, which is why conserving natural sinks is crucial to achieve carbon neutrality. In order to achieve the climate objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, carbon neutrality is ultimately necessary by 2050.     

Clean Water and Sanitation

Access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is a human right. Clean water is a basic human need, and one that should be easily accessible to all. There is sufficient fresh water on the planet to achieve this. While substantial progress has been made in increasing access to clean drinking water and sanitation,  every year millions of people — most of them children — still die from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene, due to poor infrastructure, lack of investment and planning. Worldwide, one in three people do not have access to safe drinking water, two out of five people do not have a basic hand-washing facility with soap and water, and more than 673 million people still practice open defecation. The UN Sustainable Development Goal number 6 has the objective to ensure access to water and sanitation for all by 2030.

Climate Adaptation

Climate Change Adaptation refers to the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In some natural systems, human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effects (IPCC, 2014). In other words, as Climate Change Mitigation seeks to reduce the likelihood of a climate change event occurring, adaptation aims to enhance our response to these events, ultimately increasing resilience against climate risks. Due to the unequal distribution of rights, resources and power, the ability to adapt to climate change will ultimately differ between men and women. However, adaptation is one of the key areas where gender is most integrated. 

Climate Equity

Climate equity recognizes and addresses the ways in which climate change exacerbates existing inequities, while ensuring that everyone benefits from climate protection and can live in clean, equitable, safe and healthy communities.

Climate Justice

Climate Justice looks at the climate crisis through a human rights lens and it insists on a shift from a discourse just on greenhouse gas emissions and melting ice caps into a civil rights movement, with the people and communities most vulnerable to climate impacts. These impacts are commonly understood to affect all human beings in an undifferentiated approach. However, the way these are distributed both in terms of incidence and intensity alerts us to something completely opposite: it appears that most of the risks fall on vulnerable and powerless populations, such as women, black people, indigenous, etc. Climate Justice implies the right to a safe, healthy and productive environment for all, which can be freely exercised, preserving, respecting and realizing individual and group identities, in addition to the dignity and autonomy of peoples.

Climate Mitigation

Climate mitigation focuses on using new practices and technologies in an effort to reduce and prevent the emission of greenhouse gasses, Efforts may include the use updating of new technologies, better and more eco-friendly management practices, or changing consumer behaviour. The goal of mitigation is to avoid significant human contribution to the climate system and to stabilize greenhouse gas levels in a timeframe sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, ensure food production is not threatened, and to enable economic development to proceed in a in a sustainable manner (2014 Mitigation of Climate Change) Responding to climate change today is crucial for the future of the planet. Climate change’s complexity involves so many dimensions; science, economics, society, politics, among others. Understanding gendered differences is key to developing policies and actions to mitigate climate change, and transition away from high emissions energy use. Women play a huge role in activities that support mitigation, for example, in small-scale agriculture and food production. Through their diverse roles as community leaders, farmers, entrepreneurs, producers, and household managers, women are powerful agents of change in mitigating climate change.

Climate Policy

Climate policy addresses the continuing threats of climate change through policy tools and develops better integration of climate change objectives in legislature and policy areas, such as energy, finance, transport, building, agriculture, technology and others. Climate policy services societal accountability regarding their environmentally-conscious practices.  Climate change policies are generally designed to minimize the extent of climate change, or minimize risks, and are implemented at the local, national, regional and global levels (globally through the UN Climate Change Convention).

Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDRRC)

This term first appeared under the preamble, article 3 and article 4 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. CBDRRC states that protecting the environment and combating climate change is a responsibility of all states. However, it also acknowledges that industrialized countries polluted and enriched themselves earlier in the absence of regulation. As a result, they contributed more to environmental degradation and must now do more to combat the climate crisis. 

COP

COP stands for Conferences of the Parties, which is the supreme decision-making body of the UNFCCC. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP, at which they review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments that the COP adopts and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements. The COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise. The first COP meeting was held in Berlin, Germany in March, 1995. The COP presidency rotates among the five recognized UN regions - that is, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe and Others.

D

Degrowth

Degrowth is a social and political movement, as well as an economic theory created in the 1970s that presents an alternative to the current capitalist system of growth that prioritizes corporate profits, overproduction and excess consumption. Instead, the Degrowth theory advocates for a reduction in the use of the world’s energy and resources by putting social and ecological well-being first. Degrowth doesn’t imply the reduction of the national GDP, as most of its initiatives create economic value, but it implies producing and consuming less.

E

Eco-anxiety

Eco-anxiety is a term used to describe the fear and anxiety that people experience in response to the environmental crisis. It is a form of psychological distress caused by the awareness of environmental destruction, climate change, and other environmental issues. It is characterized by feelings of helplessness, fear, and despair in the face of environmental destruction. It can manifest itself in physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea, and difficulty sleeping. It can also lead to feelings of guilt, anger, and depression. Eco-anxiety is a growing concern among people of all ages, especially young people who are more likely to be exposed to environmental issues through media and social networks.

Ecofeminism

An activist movement that addresses the relationship between women and the earth. Ecofeminism explores the parallel between the exploitation of the environment and women by an existing patriarchy. This movement aims to bring education and advocacy to the ongoing issues related to gender equality and climate justice. Women are currently undervalued in the conversation of climate justice, when they are affected greatly by the consequences of climate change. Ecofeminism aims at fostering cooperation amongst all peoples to promote a safer, cleaner, and more sustainable environment. 

Empowerment

Empowerment is “the process of gaining freedom and power to do what you want or to control what happens to you”. This term is especially used when we talk about the struggle of social minorities, such as women and youth, to be recognized and heard in decision making spaces, obtaining power to act in any situation they would like, but especially the ones that concern their own lives. Throughout history, patriarchal structures have oppressed and dominated certain groups of people according to their best interest - mostly, monetary. Essentially, women and girls’ empowerment contributes to gender equality, which therefore contributes to a more just and sustainable society. 

Environmental Migration

Environmental migration is the process associated with the movement of people in anticipation or adaptation to environmental and climate impacts. Extreme events like cyclones, floods or wildfires destroy homes and contribute to the displacement of people. Moreover, the sea-level rise, droughts or extreme rain are increasing pressures on the livelihoods, and compromise the access to food and water, leading to a decision to move away in search of better living conditions and access to resources.

Escazu Agreement

The Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, also known as Escazu Agreement, was adopted  in 2018, at Escazu, Costa Rica. The region is one with the fewest mechanisms for transparency and access to environmental information in the world and has one of the highest rates of crimes against climate activists. With that in mind, Latin American and Caribbean countries have created the Escazu Agreement, which is based on the 10th principle of the Rio Declaration (1992). The Agreement is a tool for the protection of the environment and human rights, especially local and indigenous communities, seeking to guarantee access to information about the climate situation in the region and the actions that are taken about it, as well as giving the opportunity for the civil society to participate in the decision making process. The Escazu Agreement aims to create and strengthen the capacity building and cooperation between countries and communities. Learn more here.

F

Feminism

Feminism is a social-political movement that raises an important and complex discussion about women's role in society as well as their rights, aiming to disrupt the current patriarchal structures through female empowerment. Feminists are those who believe that women should not be disadvantaged because of their gender. In other words, women should be recognized as having equal human dignity as men and with the opportunity to freely choose how to live their lives. It is important to highlight the heterogeneity of the movement, since there are different experiences and demands within it, there are also different currents of thought. 

Source: TICKNER, J. Ann. Gendering world politics: Issues and approaches in the PostCold War Era. Nova York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Fossil fuels

Fossil fuels are energy sources derived from organic materials and are non-renewable. The planet cannot absorb them, despite having contributed to their formation (whether mineral or vegetal - through processes of decomposition and fossilization). Examples of such fuels include oil, natural gas, and coal. These energy-generating elements are traditional; however, over the centuries, they have led to challenging environmental consequences and their use has been reduced and replaced by renewable and clean energy sources. Women are more vulnerable to the use of fossil fuels and their effects, as they are more present in communities near the extraction and burning of these energy sources. Additionally, they take on greater responsibility for food production, facing the challenges of food security with droughts and floods resulting from global warming due to CO2 emissions.

G

Gender Action Plan

The Gender Action Plan, or the GAP as it is known for short, is an international roadmap aimed at incorporating gender equality and women’s full and meaningful participation in climate change discourse and action. It was created in 2017, at COP 22, as an extension of the Lima Work Programme on Gender for an additional 3 years. The Plan aims to enhance participation of women in climate action, ensuring that they are fully and equally represented in all decision-making processes at a global, regional and national level. The plan was reviewed and enhanced at COP25 in 2019. You can see updates on the most recent update of the Gender Action Plan here.

Gender Equality

Gender Equality is a fundamental human right. Gender equality secures equal access to a quality education, health, economic resources, political participation, and overall leadership positions of decision-making for both women and men. Achieving gender equality and empowering women is still a great challenge today. Discrimination against women persists in many areas of the world, including in laws and practices and social norms and practices. Gender Equality ensures equal rights and opportunities for women and men worldwide.

Gender Mainstreaming

The Council of Europe defined gender mainstreaming as “the (re)organisation, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy-making.” Gender mainstreaming is an increasingly important strategy during the decision making for policies regarding climate efforts by including a gender perspective, because people from different genders experience different realities that need to be taken into account when implementing any solutions and thus decrease gender inequalities in policy-making. 

Global Climate Governance

Global Climate Governance can be understood as the application of regulative institutional action within the specific area of climate change mitigation and adaptation and environmental protection. Its practical application can be viewed through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the formal and informal mechanisms arising from it. The principal aim of Global Climate Governance becomes limiting the rise of global temperatures through greenhouse gas emission control and its progress can be viewed through different institutional instruments, such as Paris Agreement compliance and the decisions adopted at the Conferences of Parties (COPs). 

Global Governance

Global Governance refers to the formal and informal arrangements, systems of rule and guiding frameworks that regulate actor behavior on the international stage through the promotion of collective action. The concept encompasses windranging areas of human activity, focusing on issues that require transnational attention and cooperation, such as economic development, environmental protection and human rights, for example. Due to its normative nature, Global Governance tends to be employed through international institutions, with a strong emphasis on state participation, but includes polycentricity through actor diversity, such as together with civil society and the private sector. 

Global Warming

Global warming is the long-term warming of the planet’s overall temperature, causing changes in the climate patterns worldwide. Though this warming trend has been going on for a long time, its pace has significantly increased in the last hundred years due to the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and other environmental impacts. Industrialization and agriculture, especially, have been responsible for elevating the levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, increasing the “greenhouse effect” (a natural process, responsible for controlling the Earth’s temperature) contributing to the temperature rise. The expected effects of global warming are rising sea levels, flooding, melting of polar ice caps and glaciers, fluctuations in temperature and precipitation, more frequent and stronger El Niños and La Niñas, drought, heat waves, and forest fires. 

Green Bonds

Green bonds, or green loans, are loans made by investors to borrowers issued with the commitment to use the funds provided to finance new or existing green environmentally-friendly initiatives, businesses or assets. 

Green Economy

Green economy is a term that highlights the elements of efficiency, as a way to reduce environmental risks and address ecological scarcity. It accentuates the importance of bringing equilibrium to the interaction between business and all the ecosystems. It is commonly used as an umbrella term, with many words such as sustainability, bioeconomy and circular economy used synonymously due to their strong ties.

Green Finance

By the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), it is defined as an economy that results in improving the well-being of humanity and social equality, to better manage environmental and social risks, take up opportunities that bring both a decent rate of return and environmental benefit and deliver greater accountability. This means increasing the level of financial flows (banking, micro-credit, insurance and investment) from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors to sustainable development priorities. As a heritage from Rio 92, the expression was officially accepted by the international community and popularized in the world, absorbed by governments, companies and civil society, and used in the formulation and execution of both public policies and private initiatives.

 Green Jobs

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), green jobs are those that contribute significantly to the preservation and restoration of the environment, reducing climate change impacts through decarbonization, while also promoting worker rights and welfare. There are many sectors offering green jobs including: professionals in renewable energy, clean transportation, manufacturing, waste management, recycling, agriculture, etc. In order to achieve carbon neutral engagements, as established by the Paris Agreement, many countries have developed strategies to build greener economies, promoting the creation of green jobs in an unprecedented way. An example is the development of the European Green Deal in 2021, establishing a climate law that invests heavily in green jobs creation. 

Green Taxonomy

Green taxonomy is a system that allows investors to identify if an investment is sustainable by making more informed choices, driving capital towards projects that support a country or region’s environmental and corporate governance (ESG) and holding companies accountable by means of the goods and services they offer, as well as the practices they espouse. The investment in question must positively contribute to at least one sustainability-related goal through the use of targets that assess whether or not the activity meets certain climate, green or social objectives. As the use of green taxonomies has increased worldwide, it’s been seen as a helpful tool that prevents greenwashing. 

Greenwashing

Greenwashing occurs when an entity, usually a company, spends more time and money on marketing themselves as being sustainable than on minimizing their environmental impact. It’s a form of misinformation meant to motivate consumers to purchase goods or services marketed as sustainable and green, while providing misleading or erroneous information about the good’s or service’s true environmental footprint.