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== C == <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="CMIP3,_CMIP5_and_CMIP6"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">CMIP3, CMIP5 and CMIP6</span> === <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3, Phase 5 and Phase 6.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="CO2_equivalent_emission"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">CO2 equivalent emission</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission that would have an equivalent effect on a specified key measure of climate change, over a specified time horizon, as an emitted amount of another greenhouse gas (GHG) or a mixture of other GHGs. For a mix of GHGs it is obtained by summing the CO2-equivalent emissions of each gas. There are various ways and time horizons to compute such equivalent emissions (see greenhouse gas emission metric). CO2-equivalent emissions are commonly used to compare emissions of different GHGs, but should not be taken to imply that these emissions have an equivalent effect across all key measures of climate change. [Note: Under the Paris Rulebook (Decision 18/CMA.1, annex, paragraph 37), parties have agreed to use GWP-100 values from the IPCC AR5 or GWP-100 values from a subsequent IPCC Assessment Report to report aggregate emissions and removals of GHGs. In addition, parties may use other metrics to report supplemental information on aggregate emissions and removals of GHGs.]</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Calcification"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Calcification</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The process of biologically precipitating calcium carbonate minerals to create organism shells, skeletons, otoliths, or other body structures. The chemical equation describing calcification is Ca 2+ (aq) + 2HCO 3 − (aq) → CaCO 3 (s) + CO 2 + H 2 O. Aragonite and calcite are two common crystalline forms of biologically precipitated calcium carbonate minerals that have different solubilities.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Calving"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Calving</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Calving (of glaciers or ice sheets)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The breaking off of discrete pieces of ice from a glacier, ice sheet or an ice shelf into lake or seawater, producing icebergs. This is a form of mass loss from an ice body.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Canopy_temperature"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Canopy temperature</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The temperature within the canopy of a vegetation structure.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Capacity_building"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Capacity building</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The practice of enhancing the strengths and attributes of, and resources available to, an individual, community, society or organisation to respond to change.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbonclimate_feedback"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon–climate feedback</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A climate feedback involves changes in the properties of the land and ocean carbon cycle in response to climate change. In the ocean, changes in oceanic temperature and circulation could affect the atmosphere–ocean carbon dioxide (CO2) flux; on the continents, climate change could affect plant photosynthesis and soil microbial respiration and hence the flux of CO2 between the atmosphere and the land biosphere.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_cycle"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon cycle</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The flow of carbon (in various forms, e.g., as 2) carbon dioxide (CO, carbon in biomass, and carbon dissolved in the ocean as carbonate and bicarbonate) through the atmosphere, hydrosphere, terrestrial and marine biosphere and lithosphere. In this report, the reference unit for the global carbon cycle is GtCO 2 or GtC (one Gigatonne = 1 Gt = 10 15 grams; 1 GtC corresponds to 3.664 GtCO 2).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_dioxide"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon dioxide</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Carbon dioxide (CO2)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A naturally occurring gas, CO 2 is also a by-product of burning fossil fuels (such as oil, gas and coal), of burning biomass, of land-use changes (LUCs) and of industrial processes (e.g., cement production). It is the principal anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) that affects the Earth’s radiative balance. It is the reference gas against which other GHGs are measured and therefore has a global warming potential (GWP) of 1.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_dioxide_fertilisation"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon dioxide fertilisation</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Carbon dioxide (CO2) fertilisation</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The increase of plant photosynthesis and water-use efficiency in response to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration. Whether this increased photosynthesis translates into increased plant growth and carbon storage on land depends on the interacting effects of temperature, moisture and nutrient availability.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_dioxide_capture_and_storage"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon dioxide capture and storage</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A process in which a relatively pure stream of carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial and energy-related sources is separated (captured), conditioned, compressed and transported to a storage location for long-term isolation from the atmosphere. Sometimes referred to as carbon capture and storage.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_dioxide_capture_and_utilisation"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon dioxide capture and utilisation</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Carbon dioxide capture and utilisation (CCU)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A process in which carbon dioxide (CO2) is captured and the carbon then used in a product. The climate effect of CCU depends on the product lifetime, the product it displaces, and the CO2 source (fossil, biomass or atmosphere). CCU is sometimes referred to as Carbon Dioxide Capture and Use, or Carbon Capture and Utilisation.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_dioxide_removal"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon dioxide removal</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Carbon dioxide removal (CDR)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Anthropogenic activities removing carbon dioxide (CO 2) from the atmosphere and durably storing it in geological, terrestrial, or ocean reservoirs, or in products. It includes existing and potential anthropogenic enhancement of biological or geochemical CO 2 sinks and direct air carbon dioxide capture and storage (DACCS) but excludes natural CO 2 uptake not directly caused by human activities.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_feedback"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon feedback</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A climate feedback involves changes in the properties of the land and ocean carbon cycle in response to climate change. In the ocean, changes in oceanic temperature and circulation could affect the atmosphere–ocean carbon dioxide (CO2) flux; on the continents, climate change could affect plant photosynthesis and soil microbial respiration and hence the flux of CO2 between the atmosphere and the land biosphere.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_footprint"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon footprint</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Measure of the exclusive total amount of emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) that is directly and indirectly caused by an activity or is accumulated over the lifecycle stages of a product (Wiedmann and Minx, 2008).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_intensity"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon intensity</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The amount of emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) released per unit of another variable such as gross domestic product (GDP), output energy use or transport.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_neutrality"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon neutrality</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Condition in which anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with a subject are balanced by anthropogenic CO2 removals. The subject can be an entity such as a country, an organisation, a district or a commodity, or an activity such as a service and an event. Carbon neutrality is often assessed over the lifecycle including indirect (‘scope 3’) emissions, but can also be limited to the emissions and removals, over a specified period, for which the subject has direct control, as determined by the relevant scheme. [Note 1: Carbon neutrality and net zero CO2 emissions are overlapping concepts. The concepts can be applied at global or sub-global scales (e.g., regional, national and sub-national). At a global scale, the terms carbon neutrality and net zero CO2 emissions are equivalent. At sub-global scales, net zero CO2 emissions is generally applied to emissions and removals under direct control or territorial responsibility of the reporting entity, while carbon neutrality generally includes emissions and removals within and beyond the direct control or territorial responsibility of the reporting entity. Accounting rules specified by greenhouse gas (GHG) programmes or schemes can have a significant influence on the quantification of relevant CO2 emissions and removals. Note 2: In some cases achieving carbon neutrality may rely on the supplementary use of offsets to balance emissions that remain after actions by the reporting entity are taken into account.]</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_price"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon price</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The price for avoided or released carbon dioxide (CO2) or CO2-equivalent emissions. This may refer to the rate of a carbon tax, or the price of emission permits. In many models that are used to assess the economic costs of mitigation, carbon prices are used as a proxy to represent the level of effort in mitigation policies.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_sequestration"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon sequestration</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The process of storing carbon in a carbon pool.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbon_stock"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbon stock</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The quantity of carbon in a carbon pool.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbonaceous_aerosol"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbonaceous aerosol</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Aerosol consisting predominantly of organic substances and black carbon.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Carbonate_pump"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Carbonate pump</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Ocean carbon fixation through the biological formation of carbonates, primarily by plankton that generate bio-mineral particles that sink to the ocean interior, and possibly the sediment. It is also called carbonate counter-pump, since the formation of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3) is accompanied by the release of carbon dioxide (CO 2) to surrounding water and subsequently to the atmosphere.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cascading_impacts"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cascading impacts</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Cascading impacts from extreme weather/climate events occur when an extreme hazard generates a sequence of secondary events in natural and human systems that result in physical, natural, social or economic disruption, whereby the resulting impact is significantly larger than the initial impact. Cascading impacts are complex and multi-dimensional, and are associated more with the magnitude of vulnerability than with that of the hazard (modified from Pescaroli and Alexander, 2015).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Catchment"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Catchment</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' An area that collects and drains precipitation.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cenozoic_Era"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cenozoic Era</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The third and current geological Era, which began 66.0 Ma. It comprises the Paleogene, Neogene and Quaternary Periods.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Central_Pacific_El_Niño"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Central Pacific El Niño</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' An El Niño event in which sea surface temperature anomalies are stronger in the central equatorial Pacific than in the east. Also known as a Modoki El Niño event.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Chaotic"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Chaotic</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A dynamical system such as the climate system, governed by non-linear deterministic equations, may exhibit erratic or chaotic behaviour in the sense that very small changes in the initial state of the system lead to large and apparently unpredictable changes in its temporal evolution. Such chaotic behaviour limits the predictability of the state of a non-linear dynamical system at specific future times, although changes in its statistics may still be predictable given changes in the system parameters or boundary conditions.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Charcoal"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Charcoal</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Material resulting from charring of biomass, usually retaining some of the microscopic texture typical of plant tissues; chemically it consists mainly of carbon with a disturbed graphitic structure, with lesser amounts of oxygen and hydrogen.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Chlorofluorocarbons"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Chlorofluorocarbons</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' An organic compound that contains chlorine, carbon, hydrogen, and fluorine and is used for refrigeration, air conditioning, packaging, plastic foam, insulation, solvents, or aerosol propellants. Because they are not destroyed in the lower atmosphere, CFCs drift into the upper atmosphere where, given suitable conditions, they lead to ozone (O3) depletion. They are some of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) covered under the 1987 Montreal Protocol as a result of which manufacturing of these gases has been phased out, and they are being replaced by other compounds, including hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Choice_architecture"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Choice architecture</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The presentation of choices to consumers, and the impact that presentation has on consumer decision-making.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Chronology"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Chronology</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Arrangement of events according to dates or times of occurrence.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Circular_economy"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Circular economy</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A system with minimal input and operational losses of materials and energy through extensive reduce, reuse, recycling, and recovery activities. Ten strategies for circularity include: Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle, Recover.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cirrus_cloud_thinning"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cirrus cloud thinning</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Cirrus cloud thinning (CCT)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' One of several radiation modification approaches to counter the warming caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs). In this approach, it is proposed to reduce the amount of cirrus clouds by injecting ice nucleating substances in the upper troposphere. The reduction in cirrus clouds is expected to increase the amount of longwave cooling to space resulting in a planetary cooling. Although cirrus cloud thinning primarily affects the longwave radiation budget of our planet, it is often identified as one of the solar radiation modification (SRM) approaches in the literature.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cities"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cities</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Cities are open systems, continually exchanging resources, products and services, waste, people, ideas and finances with the hinterlands and broader world. Cities are complex, self-organising, adaptive and constantly evolving. Cities also encompass multiple actors with varying responsibilities, capabilities and priorities, as well as processes that transcend the institutional sector-based approach to city administration. Cities are embedded in broader ecological, economic, technical, institutional, legal and governance structures that enable or often constrain their systemic function, which cannot be separated from wider power relations. Urban processes of a physical, social and economic nature are causally interlinked, with interactions and feedbacks that result in both intended and unintended impacts on emissions.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Citizen_science"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Citizen science</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A voluntary participation of the public in the collection and/or processing of data as part of a scientific study (Silvertown, 2009).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="City_region"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">City region</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The areal extent of an individual city's material associations and economic or political influence. The city region concept accepts that rural livelihoods and land uses can be incorporated within the functional activities of a city. This will include dormitory settlements, sources for critical inputs of water, some food, and waste disposal.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Clathrate"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Clathrate</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Clathrate (methane)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A partly frozen slushy mix of methane gas and ice, usually found in sediments.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="ClausiusClapeyron_equation_relationship"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Clausius–Clapeyron equation/relationship</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The thermodynamic relationship between temperature and the vapour pressure of a substance in which two phases of the substance are in equilibrium (e.g., liquid water and water vapour). For gases such as water vapour, this relation gives the increase in equilibrium (or saturation) vapour pressure per unit change in air temperature.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' In a narrow sense, climate is usually defined as the average weather, or more rigorously as the statistical description in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period of time ranging from months to thousands or millions of years. The classical period for averaging these variables is 30 years, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The relevant quantities are most often surface variables such as temperature, precipitation and wind. Climate in a wider sense is the state, including a statistical description, of the climate system.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climatecarbon_cycle_feedback"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate–carbon cycle feedback</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A climate feedback involves changes in the properties of the land and ocean carbon cycle in response to climate change. In the ocean, changes in oceanic temperature and circulation could affect the atmosphere –ocean carbon dioxide (CO 2) flux; on the continents, climate change could affect plant photosynthesis and soil microbial respiration and hence the flux of CO 2 between the atmosphere and the land biosphere.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_change"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate change</span> === <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings such as modulations of the solar cycles, volcanic eruptions and persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. Note that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in its Article 1, defines climate change as: ’a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods’. The UNFCCC thus makes a distinction between climate change attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition and climate variability attributable to natural causes.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_change_commitment"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate change commitment</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Unavoidable future climate change resulting from inertia in the geophysical and socio-economic systems. Different types of climate change commitment are discussed in the literature (see subterms). Climate change commitment is usually quantified in terms of the further change in temperature, but it includes other future changes, for example in the hydrological cycle, in extreme weather events, in extreme climate events, and in sea level.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_extreme"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate extreme</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Climate extreme (extreme weather or climate event)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The occurrence of a value of a weather or climate variable above (or below) a threshold value near the upper (or lower) ends of the range of observed values of the variable. By definition, the characteristics of what is called extreme weather may vary from place to place in an absolute sense. When a pattern of extreme weather persists for some time, such as a season, it may be classified as an extreme climate event, especially if it yields an average or total that is itself extreme (e.g., high temperature, drought, or heavy rainfall over a season). For simplicity, both extreme weather events and extreme climate events are referred to collectively as climate extremes.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_feedback"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate feedback</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' An interaction in which a perturbation in one climate quantity causes a change in a second and the change in the second quantity ultimately leads to an additional change in the first. A negative feedback is one in which the initial perturbation is weakened by the changes it causes; a positive feedback is one in which the initial perturbation is enhanced. The initial perturbation can either be externally forced or arise as part of internal variability.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_feedback_parameter"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate feedback parameter</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A way to quantify the radiative response of the climate system to a global surface temperature change induced by a radiative forcing. It is quantified as the change in net energy flux at the top of atmosphere for a given change in annual global surface temperature. It has units of W m -2 °C -1.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_finance"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate finance</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' There is no agreed definition of climate finance. The term ‘climate finance‘ is applied to the financial resources devoted to addressing climate change by all public and private actors from global to local scales, including international financial flows to developing countries to assist them in addressing climate change. Climate finance aims to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions and/or to enhance adaptation and increase resilience to the impacts of current and projected climate change. Finance can come from private and public sources, channelled by various intermediaries, and is delivered by a range of instruments, including grants, concessional and non-concessional debt, and internal budget reallocations.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_forecast"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate forecast</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A climate prediction or climate forecast is the result of an attempt to produce (starting from a particular state of the climate system) an estimate of the actual evolution of the climate in the future, for example, at seasonal, interannual or decadal time scales. Because the future evolution of the climate system may be highly sensitive to initial conditions, has chaotic elements and is subject to natural variability, such predictions are usually probabilistic in nature.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_governance"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate governance</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The structures, processes and actions through which private and public actors seek to mitigate and adapt to climate change.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_index"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate index</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A time series constructed from climate variables that provides an aggregate summary of the state of the climate system. For example, the difference between sea level pressure in Iceland and the Azores provides a simple yet useful historical North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. Because of their optimal properties, climate indices are often defined using principal components — linear combinations of climate variables at different locations that have maximum variance subject to certain normalization constraints (e.g., the Northern Annular Mode (NAM) and Southern Annular Mode (SAM) indices which are principal components of Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere gridded pressure anomalies, respectively). Definitions of observational indices for Modes of climate variability can be found in Annex VI of the AR6 WGI report.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_indicator"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate indicator</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Measures of the climate system including large-scale variables and climate proxies.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_information"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate information</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Information about the past, current or future state of the climate system that is relevant for mitigation, adaptation and risk management. It may be tailored or “co‑produced“ for specific contexts, taking into account users’ needs and values.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_justice"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate justice</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Justice that links development and human rights to achieve a human-centred approach to addressing climate change, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable people and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its impacts equitably and fairly (MRFCJ, 2018).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_literacy"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate literacy</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Climate literacy encompasses being aware of climate change, its anthropogenic causes and implications.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_metrics"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate metrics</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Measures of aspects of the overall climate system response to radiative forcing, such as equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS), transient climate response (TCR), transient climate response to cumulative CO2 emissions (TCRE) and the airborne fraction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_model"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate model</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A qualitative or quantitative representation of the climate system based on the physical, chemical and biological properties of its components, their interactions and feedback processes and accounting for some of its known properties. The climate system can be represented by models of varying complexity; that is, for any one component or combination of components a spectrum or hierarchy of models can be identified, differing in such aspects as the number of spatial dimensions, the extent to which physical, chemical or biological processes are explicitly represented, or the level at which empirical parametrisations are involved. There is an evolution towards more complex models with interactive chemistry and biology. Climate models are applied as a research tool to study and simulate the climate and for operational purposes, including monthly, seasonal and interannual climate predictions.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_pattern"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate pattern</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A set of spatially varying coefficients obtained by ‘projection’ (regression) of climate variables onto a climate index time series. When the climate index is a principal component, the climate pattern is an eigenvector of the covariance matrix, referred to as an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) in climate science.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_prediction"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate prediction</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A climate prediction or climate forecast is the result of an attempt to produce (starting from a particular state of the climate system) an estimate of the actual evolution of the climate in the future, for example, at seasonal, interannual or decadal time scales. Because the future evolution of the climate system may be highly sensitive to initial conditions, has chaotic elements and is subject to natural variability, such predictions are usually probabilistic in nature.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_projection"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate projection</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Simulated response of the climate system to a scenario of future emissions or concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and aerosols and changes in land use, generally derived using climate models. Climate projections are distinguished from climate predictions by their dependence on the emission/concentration/radiative forcing scenario used, which is in turn based on assumptions concerning, for example, future socio-economic and technological developments that may or may not be realised.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_refugium"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate refugium</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A climate refugium is a geographic area that has had a stable climate on evolutionary time scales, or that is projected to have a stable climate into the future.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_resilient_development"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate resilient development</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' In the WGII report, climate resilient development refers to the process of implementing greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation measures to support sustainable development for all.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_resilient_development_pathways"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate resilient development pathways</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Climate resilient development pathways (CRDPs)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Trajectories that strengthen sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty and reduce inequalities while promoting fair and cross-scalar adaptation to and resilience in a changing climate. They raise the ethics, equity and feasibility aspects of the deep societal transformation needed to drastically reduce emissions to limit global warming (e.g., to well below 2°C) and achieve desirable and liveable futures and well-being for all.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate-resilient_pathways"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate-resilient pathways</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Iterative processes for managing change within complex systems in order to reduce disruptions and enhance opportunities associated with climate change.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_response"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate response</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A general term for how the climate system responds to a radiative forcing.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_sensitivity"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate sensitivity</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The change in the surface temperature in response to a change in the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2) concentration or other radiative forcing.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_services"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate services</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Climate services involve the provision of climate information in such a way as to assist decision-making. The service includes appropriate engagement from users and providers, is based on scientifically credible information and expertise, has an effective access mechanism and responds to user needs (Hewitt et al., 2012).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_simulation_ensemble"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate simulation ensemble</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A group of parallel model simulations characterising historical climate conditions, climate predictions, or climate projections. Variation of the results across the ensemble members may give an estimate of modelling-based uncertainty. Ensembles made with the same model but different initial conditions characterise the uncertainty associated with internal climate variability, whereas multi-model ensembles including simulations by several models also include the effect of model differences. Perturbed parameter ensembles, in which model parameters are varied in a systematic manner, aim to assess the uncertainty resulting from internal model specifications within a single model. Remaining sources of uncertainty unaddressed with model ensembles are related to systematic model errors or biases, which may be assessed from systematic comparisons of model simulations with observations wherever available.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate-smart_agriculture"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate-smart agriculture</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Climate-smart agriculture (CSA)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' An approach to agriculture that aims to transform and reorient agricultural systems to effectively support development and ensure food security in a changing climate by sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes, adapting and building resilience to climate change, and reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions, where possible (FAO, 2018).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_system"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate system</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The global system consisting of five major components: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere and the interactions between them. The climate system changes in time under the influence of its own internal dynamics and because of external forcings such as volcanic eruptions, solar variations, orbital forcing, and anthropogenic forcings such as the changing composition of the atmosphere and land-use change.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_threshold"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate threshold</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A limit within the climate system (or its forcing) beyond which the behaviour of the system is qualitatively changed.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_variability"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate variability</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Deviations of climate variables from a given mean state (including the occurrence of extremes, etc.) at all spatial and temporal scales beyond that of individual weather events. Variability may be intrinsic, due to fluctuations of processes internal to the climate system (internal variability), or extrinsic, due to variations in natural or anthropogenic external forcing (forced variability).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climate_velocity"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climate velocity</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The speed at which isolines of a specified climate variable travel across landscapes or seascapes due to changing climate. For example, climate velocity for temperature is the speed at which isotherms move due to changing climate (km yr -1) and is calculated as the temporal change in temperature (°C yr -1) divided by the current spatial gradient in temperature (°C km -1). It can be calculated using additional climate variables such as precipitation or can be based on the climatic niche of organisms.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climatic_driver"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climatic driver</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Climatic driver (Climate driver)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A changing aspect of the climate system that influences a component of a human or natural system.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Climatic_impact-driver"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Climatic impact-driver</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Climatic impact-driver (CID)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Physical climate system conditions (e.g., means, events, extremes) that affect an element of society or ecosystems. Depending on system tolerance, CIDs and their changes can be detrimental, beneficial, neutral or a mixture of each across interacting system elements and regions.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cloud_condensation_nuclei"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cloud condensation nuclei</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Cloud condensation nuclei (CCN)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The subset of aerosol particles that serve as an initial site for the condensation of liquid water, which can lead to the formation of cloud droplets, under typical cloud formation conditions. The main factor that determines which aerosol particles are CCN at a given supersaturation is their size.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cloud_feedback"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cloud feedback</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A climate feedback involving changes in any of the properties of clouds as a response to a change in the local or global surface temperature. Understanding cloud feedbacks and determining their magnitude and sign requires an understanding of how a change in climate may affect the spectrum of cloud types, the cloud fraction and height, the radiative properties of clouds, and finally the Earth’s radiation budget.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cloud_radiative_effect"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cloud radiative effect</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The radiative effect of clouds relative to the identical situation without clouds.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cloud-resolving_models"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cloud-resolving models</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Cloud-resolving models (CRMs)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Numerical models that are that are of high enough resolution and have the necessary physics to represent the dynamical and physical processes of cloud formation.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Co-benefits"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Co-benefits</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A positive effect that a policy or measure aimed at one objective has on another objective, thereby increasing the total benefit to society or the environment. Co-benefits are also referred to as ancillary benefits.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Coast"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Coast</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The land near to the sea. The term ‘coastal’ can refer to that land (e.g., as in ‘coastal communities’), or to that part of the marine environment that is strongly influenced by land-based processes. Thus, coastal seas are generally shallow and near-shore. The landward and seaward limits of the coastal zone are not consistently defined, neither scientifically nor legally. Thus, coastal waters can either be considered as equivalent to territorial waters (extending 12 nautical miles/22.2 km from mean low water), or to the full exclusive economic zone, or to shelf seas, with less than 200 m water depth.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Coastal_erosion"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Coastal erosion</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Coastal erosion, sometimes referred to as shoreline retreat, occurs when a net loss of sediment or bedrock from the shoreline results in landward movement of the high-tide mark.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cold_days_cold_nights"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cold days/cold nights</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Days where maximum temperature, or nights where minimum temperature, falls below the 10th percentile, where the respective temperature distributions are generally defined with respect to the 1961-1990 reference period. For the corresponding indices, see Box 2.4.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Common_era"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Common era</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Common era (CE)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before the Common Era) are alternative names for AD (Anno Domini) and BC (Before Christ) in the Gregorian international standard calendar-year system. CE/BCE are preferred in an international context because they are neutral with respect to religion. The numbering of calendar years is the same under both terminologies. The CE began in year AD 1 and extends to the present day.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Communicable_disease"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Communicable disease</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Illness due to a specific infectious agent or its toxic products that arises through transmission of that agent or its products from an infected person, animal or reservoir to a susceptible host, either directly or indirectly through an intermediate plant or animal host, vector or the inanimate environment. Communicable disease pathogens include bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites and prions.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Community-based_adaptation"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Community-based adaptation</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Local, community-driven adaptation. Community-based adaptation focuses attention on empowering and promoting the adaptive capacity of communities. It is an approach that takes context, culture, knowledge, agency, and preferences of communities as strengths.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Compatible_emissions"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Compatible emissions</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Earth system models that simulate the land and ocean carbon cycle can calculate 2) carbon dioxide (CO emissions that are compatible with a given atmospheric CO 2 concentration trajectory. The compatible emissions over a given period of time are equal to the increase of carbon over that same period of time in the sum of the three active reservoirs: the atmosphere, the land and the ocean.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Compound_risks"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Compound risks</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' arise from the interaction of hazards, which may be characterised by single extreme events or multiple coincident or sequential events that interact with exposed systems or sectors.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Compound_weather_climate_events"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Compound weather/climate events</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The terms ‘compound events’, ‘compound extremes’ and ‘compound extreme events’ are used interchangeably in the literature and this report and refer to the combination of multiple drivers and/or hazards that contributes to societal and/or environmental risk (Zscheischler et al., 2018).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Concentrations_scenario"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Concentrations scenario</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A plausible representation of the future development of atmospheric concentrations of substances that are radiatively active (e.g., greenhouse gases (GHGs), aerosols, tropospheric ozone), plus human-induced land-cover changes that can be radiatively active via albedo changes, and often used as input to a climate model to compute climate projections.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Conference_of_the_Parties"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Conference of the Parties</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Conference of the Parties (COP)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The supreme body of UN conventions, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), comprising parties with a right to vote that have ratified or acceded to the convention. UN Climate Change Conference</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Confidence"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Confidence</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The robustness of a finding based on the type, amount, quality and consistency of evidence (e.g., mechanistic understanding, theory, data, models, expert judgement) and on the degree of agreement across multiple lines of evidence. In this report, confidence is expressed qualitatively (Mastrandrea et al., 2010).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Conservation_agriculture"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Conservation agriculture</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A farming system that promotes minimum soil disturbance (e.g., by using no till practices), maintenance of a permanent soil cover and diversification of plant species. It aims to prevent land degradation and regenerate degraded lands by enhancing biodiversity and natural biological processes above and below the ground surface, that contribute to increased water and nutrient use efficiency and improved and sustained crop production (FAO, 2016).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Constant_composition_commitment"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Constant composition commitment</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The constant composition commitment is the remaining climate change that would result if atmospheric composition, and hence radiative forcing, were held fixed at a given value. It results from the thermal inertia of the ocean and slow processes in the cryosphere and land surface.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Constant_emissions_commitment"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Constant emissions commitment</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The constant emissions commitment is the committed climate change that would result from keeping anthropogenic emissions constant.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Consumption-based_emissions"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Consumption-based emissions</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Emissions released to the atmosphere in order to generate the goods and services consumed by a certain entity (e.g., a person, firm, country, or region).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Convection"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Convection</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Vertical motion driven by buoyancy forces arising from static instability, usually caused by near-surface cooling or increases in salinity in the case of the ocean and near-surface warming or cloud-top radiative cooling in the case of the atmosphere. In the atmosphere, convection gives rise to cumulus clouds and precipitation and is effective at both scavenging and vertically transporting chemical species. In the ocean, convection can carry surface waters to deep within the ocean.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Coping"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Coping</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The use of available skills, resources and opportunities to address, manage and overcome adverse conditions, with the aim of achieving basic functioning of people, institutions, organisations and systems in the short to medium term (UNISDR, 2009; IPCC, 2012a).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Coping_capacity"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Coping capacity</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The ability of people, institutions, organisations and systems, using available skills, values, beliefs, resources, and opportunities, to address, manage and overcome adverse conditions in the short to medium term (UNISDR, 2009; IPCC, 2012).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Coral_bleaching"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Coral bleaching</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Loss of coral pigmentation through the loss of intracellular symbiotic algae (known as zooxanthellae) and/or loss of their pigments.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Coral_reef"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Coral reef</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' An underwater ecosystem characterised by structure-building stony corals. Warm-water coral reefs occur in shallow seas, mostly in the tropics, with the corals (animals) containing algae (plants) that depend on light and relatively stable temperature conditions. Cold-water coral reefs occur throughout the world, mostly at water depths of 50–500 m. In both kinds of reef, living corals frequently grow on older, dead material, predominantly made of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3). Both warm and cold-water coral reefs support high biodiversity of fish and other groups, and are considered to be especially vulnerable to climate change. From Wikipedia A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cosmogenic_radioisotopes"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cosmogenic radioisotopes</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Rare radioactive isotopes that are created by the interaction of high-energy cosmic ray particles with atomic nuclei. They are often used as indicator of solar activity which modulates the cosmic rays’ intensity or as tracers of atmospheric transport processes, and are also called cosmogenic radionuclides.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Costbenefit_analysis"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cost–benefit analysis</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A type of economic evaluation that compares all monetised all monetised negative and positive impacts associated with a given action. Cost–benefit analysis enables comparison of different interventions, investments or strategies, and reveals how a given investment or policy effort pays off for a particular person, company or country, or at a global scale. Cost–benefit analyses representing society’s point of view are important for climate change decision-making, but there are difficulties in aggregating costs and benefits across different actors and across time scales.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cost-effectiveness_analysis"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cost-effectiveness analysis</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A type of economic evaluation that compares the costs of different courses of action reaching the same outcome. In this report, CEA focuses on comparing the costs of mitigation strategies designed to meet a prespecified climate change mitigation goal (e.g., an emission-reduction target or a temperature stabilisation target).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Coupled_Model_Intercomparison_Project"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Coupled Model Intercomparison Project</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-longer-term">'''Full term:''' Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP)</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' A climate modelling activity from the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) which coordinates and archives climate model simulations based on shared model inputs by modelling groups from around the world. The (CMIP3) multi-model data set includes projections using Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) scenarios. The (CMIP5) data set includes projections using the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP). The CMIP6 phase involves a suite of common model experiments as well as an ensemble of CMIP-endorsed Model Intercomparison Projects (MIPs).</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cryosphere"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cryosphere</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The components of the Earth system at and below the land and ocean surface that are frozen, including snow cover, glaciers, ice sheets, ice shelves, icebergs, sea ice, lake ice, river ice, permafrost and seasonally frozen ground.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cultural_impacts"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cultural impacts</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' Impacts on material and ecological aspects of culture and the lived experience of culture, including dimensions such as identity, community cohesion and belonging, sense of place, worldview, values, perceptions, and tradition. Cultural impacts are closely related to ecological impacts, especially for iconic and representational dimensions of species and landscapes. Culture and cultural practices frame the importance and value of the impacts of change, shape the feasibility and acceptability of adaptation options, and provide the skills and practices that enable adaptation.</div> </div> <div class="glossary-entry"> <div id="Cumulative_emissions"></div> === <span class="glossary-term">Cumulative emissions</span> === <div class="glossary-working-groups">'''Working Groups:''' WGI; WGIII</div> <div class="glossary-definition">'''Definition:''' The total amount of emissions released over a specified period of time.</div> </div> </div> <div class="glossary-letter-section">
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