Climate 101

Climate conversations are full of acronyms, technical terms, and jargon that can make your head spin. If you've recently been handed the sustainability portfolio at work and aren't quite sure where to start, you're not alone—and this glossary is for you.

This guide breaks down the most common terms you'll encounter—in plain English.

The basics

Climate change: Long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. While some variation is natural, current climate change is primarily caused by human activities, especially burning fossil fuels.

Global warming: The long-term increase in Earth's average temperature. It's one aspect of climate change, but climate change includes other shifts too—like changing rainfall patterns and more extreme weather.

Greenhouse gases (GHGs): Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. The main ones are carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O). When we burn fossil fuels, cut down forests, or engage in certain agricultural practices, we release more of these gases, warming the planet.

Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e): A way to compare different greenhouse gases by converting them to the equivalent amount of CO₂. For example, methane is more potent than CO₂, so one tonne of methane equals about 25 tonnes of CO₂e.

Measuring emissions

Carbon footprint: The total amount of greenhouse gases generated by an organisation, person, event, or product. Usually measured in tonnes of CO₂e.

Scope 1 emissions: Direct emissions from sources you own or control—like company vehicles, on-site fuel combustion, or manufacturing processes.

Scope 2 emissions: Indirect emissions from the electricity, heating, or cooling you purchase. You don't burn the fuel yourself, but you're responsible for the emissions created to generate that energy.

Scope 3 emissions: All other indirect emissions in your value chain—from the products you buy, employee commuting, business travel, waste disposal, to how customers use your products. These are often the largest share of emissions but the trickiest to measure.

Climate action

Mitigation: Actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or remove them from the atmosphere. Examples include switching to renewable energy, improving energy efficiency, or planting forests.

Adaptation: Adjusting to current or expected climate impacts. Examples include building flood defences, developing drought-resistant crops, or relocating vulnerable infrastructure.

Net zero: Achieving a balance between the greenhouse gases you emit and the amount you remove from the atmosphere. Most net zero targets aim for 2050.

Carbon neutral: Similar to net zero, but typically achieved over a shorter timeframe and often includes purchasing carbon offsets rather than eliminating emissions entirely.

Decarbonisation: The process of reducing carbon emissions, ideally to zero. This usually means shifting away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy and other low-carbon alternatives.

Climate science and scenarios

Paris Agreement: A 2015 international treaty where countries committed to limiting global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.

1.5°C (or 2°C) pathway: A scenario showing what emissions reductions are needed to limit warming to 1.5°C (or 2°C). The lower the target, the faster and deeper emissions cuts need to be.

Tipping point: A threshold beyond which a small change triggers a large, often irreversible shift in a climate system. Examples include the collapse of ice sheets or the dieback of the Amazon rainforest.

Climate scenario: A plausible future pathway showing how climate and society might evolve based on different assumptions about emissions, policies, and technology. Organisations use scenarios to test how resilient their strategies are under different futures.

Reporting and disclosure

Climate-related financial disclosure (CRFD): The practice of publicly reporting how climate change affects your organisation's finances, strategy, and operations. This includes disclosing climate risks, opportunities, emissions, and targets. Many countries now mandate CRFD for large organisations.

TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures): A framework for reporting climate risks and opportunities. It covers governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics.

NZ CS 1-3: New Zealand's mandatory climate disclosure standards, based on TCFD. Large organisations must report on governance (CS1), strategy and risk management (CS2), and metrics and targets (CS3).

Materiality: Whether something is significant enough to influence decisions by investors, stakeholders, or regulators. In climate terms, a risk is material if it could substantially affect your financial position or strategy.

Greenwashing: Making misleading or unsubstantiated claims about environmental performance. This damages trust and can lead to regulatory penalties or reputational harm.

Carbon markets and offsets

Carbon pricing: Putting a cost on carbon emissions, either through a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme. The idea is to make polluting more expensive, encouraging emissions reductions.

Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS): A market-based system where organisations can buy and sell emission allowances. New Zealand has an ETS covering forestry, energy, industry, and waste.

Carbon offset: A reduction in emissions made to compensate for emissions elsewhere. For example, funding a renewable energy project to "offset" your business travel emissions. Quality and credibility of offsets vary widely.

Carbon credit: A tradable certificate representing one tonne of CO₂e removed or prevented from entering the atmosphere.

Physical and transition terms

Physical risk: Risks from the physical impacts of climate change—flooding, heatwaves, droughts, storms, sea level rise. These can damage assets, disrupt operations, or affect supply chains.

Transition risk: Risks from the shift to a low-carbon economy. These include policy changes (like carbon pricing), technology shifts (like electric vehicles), market changes (like reduced demand for fossil fuels), and reputational risks.

Stranded assets: Assets that lose value or become obsolete before the end of their useful life due to climate-related changes. A coal-fired power plant that must close early due to carbon regulations is a stranded asset.

Resilience: The ability to withstand, adapt to, and recover from climate impacts. Resilient organisations anticipate risks and build flexibility into their operations.

Getting comfortable with the language

You don't need to memorise every term to have productive conversations about climate. But understanding the basics helps you ask better questions, make informed decisions, and cut through the noise.

The language of climate is evolving, and new terms appear regularly. When in doubt, ask for clarification—good climate work is about substance, not jargon.

Feeling lost in climate terminology when it comes to your organisation? Onepointfive translates complexity into clarity, helping you understand what matters and what to do about it—minus the jargon. Let's talk.