- Additionality
- The test of whether a climate or nature benefit would have happened without the project or the finance behind it. Credits are only credible if the benefit is additional. Read more
- Afforestation, reforestation and revegetation (ARR)
- Carbon project activities that grow new trees or vegetation on land that lacked them, generating removal credits as biomass and soil carbon accumulate.
- Benefit-sharing
- The agreed rules for how revenue from a project, such as carbon credit sales, is divided between communities, landowners, developers and others. Read more
- Biodiversity credit
- A certificate representing a measured and verified positive outcome for biodiversity, such as habitat restored or protected to a defined condition. Standards are still emerging. Read more
- Blue carbon
- Carbon captured and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems, especially mangroves, seagrass meadows and tidal marshes. Read more
- Buffer pool
- A share of credits set aside and not sold, to insure against reversals such as fire, drought or deforestation. Read more
- Carbon credit
- A tradable certificate representing one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent reduced or removed from the atmosphere, verified under a recognised standard. Read more
- Climate finance
- Public and private finance that supports climate change mitigation and adaptation, including grants, loans, guarantees, equity and results-based payments.
- Climate-smart agriculture
- An approach to farming that aims to raise productivity, strengthen resilience to climate change and reduce emissions where possible. Read more
- Condition account
- In ecosystem accounting, the record of how healthy each ecosystem is, using indicators such as vegetation cover, soil carbon or water quality, compared with a reference condition. Read more
- Double counting
- Claiming the same emission reduction or nature outcome more than once, for example by two buyers or by a buyer and a country. High-integrity markets prevent it through registries and authorisations.
- Ecosystem accounting
- The part of the UN SEEA framework that records ecosystems as assets, covering their extent, condition, services and value. Read more
- Ecosystem services
- The benefits people obtain from ecosystems, such as food, fodder, clean water, flood regulation, carbon storage, pollination and recreation. Read more
- Extent account
- In ecosystem accounting, the record of the area of each ecosystem type at the start and end of a period, and the conversions between them. Read more
- Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC)
- The right of indigenous peoples and local communities to give or withhold consent to projects affecting their lands and resources, without coercion, in advance and with full information.
- Ground-truthing
- Collecting field observations at known locations to check or calibrate what satellite or aerial imagery shows. Read more
- Human-wildlife conflict
- Negative interactions between people and wild animals, such as crop raiding, livestock predation, injury or death, that harm both people and wildlife. Read more
- Key resource area
- A small part of a dry landscape, such as a swamp or river valley, that keeps providing forage and water in the dry season and carries herds and wildlife through drought. Read more
- MRV
- Measurement, reporting and verification: the systems used to quantify outcomes such as emission reductions or habitat gains, report them and have them independently checked. Read more
- Natural capital
- The stock of renewable and non-renewable natural assets, such as soils, water, forests, grasslands and wildlife, that provide benefits to people. Read more
- Natural capital accounting
- Measuring natural assets and the services they provide consistently over time, in physical and monetary terms, so that changes can be tracked alongside economic accounts. Read more
- Nature-based solutions
- Actions that protect, sustainably manage or restore ecosystems to address societal challenges such as climate change, food security or disaster risk, while benefiting people and biodiversity.
- One Health
- An integrated approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems, recognising that they are closely linked. Read more
- Permanence
- How long a carbon or nature benefit lasts. Credits must account for the risk that stored carbon is released or protected habitat is lost.
- REDD+
- Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, plus conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
- Remote sensing
- Gathering information about the Earth from satellites, aircraft or drones, such as vegetation cover, land use, water and surface temperature. Read more
- SEEA
- The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting, the UN statistical standard for integrating environmental information with economic accounts. Its Ecosystem Accounting module was adopted in 2021. Read more
- Zoonosis
- A disease that can pass between animals and people, such as rabies, brucellosis or Rift Valley fever. Read more
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