Glossary

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement on climate change outlines the basic rules under which countries signed up to the agreement can cooperate with each other to achieve their climate pledges, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) was held in Glasgow, Scotland in November of 2021.

Carbon avoidance projects contribute to climate action by preventing carbon that would have otherwise been released into the atmosphere.

A carbon credit is a tradable certificate or unit representing the reduction of one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) from the atmosphere.

Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions.

Carbon offsetting refers to the act of using carbon credits to make a claim for offsetting some of the greenhouse gas emissions generated by a company or individual.

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is a process in which carbon dioxide is proactively removed from the atmosphere and sequestered for long periods of time.

The Claims Code of Practice is a rulebook from the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) on how companies can make use of carbon credits as part of their net zero and decarbonisation plans and then make credible claims about their actions.

Climate positive, also known as carbon negative, means that an organisation is actively removing existing carbon from the atmosphere.

The Core Carbon Principles are ten science-based principles developed in 2023 by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (IC-VCM) to identify and label high-quality carbon credits that create real and verifiable climate impact.

A corresponding adjustment is a mechanism to avoid double counting when countries trade carbon credits between each other under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

Ex-ante credits represent intended emission reductions.

Ex-post credits represent an emission reduction that has already occurred.

A greenhouse gas (GHG) is a gas that traps heat in the atmosphere.

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (IC-VCM) is a non-profit standards body focusing on the supply side of the voluntary carbon market.

Setting an internal cost of carbon, also known as an internal carbon price, is a climate action and risk avoidance strategy in which a price is assigned within a company to every tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emitted by its operations.

A Letter of Authorisation (LoA) is a communication from the host country of a carbon project stating that a carbon credit from that project can be transferred abroad under the Paris Agreement's Article 6 mechanism.

A Nationally Determined Contribution, or NDC, is a country’s pledge outlining its specific commitments and actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change under the Paris Agreement.

Net zero emissions are achieved when all emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, caused by all human activity, are balanced by the same amount removed from the atmosphere over a specified period.

The Paris Agreement is an international treaty on climate change that was signed in 2015.

In order to take climate action and become carbon neutral or reach net zero, a company needs to categorise and measure their greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2015 the Financial Stability Board created a body called the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

The VCMI is an international non-profit organisation looking to improve the integrity of the voluntary carbon markets.

The voluntary carbon markets allow companies that are not regulated under any of the compliance markets to buy and sell carbon credits.