Glossary definitions

The major of the metabolic pathways for CO2 fixation by plants, involving a 3-carbon organic intermediate molecule. C3 photosynthetic plants possess a specific leaf structure, and are not adapted to non-optimal conditions.

Plants that use C3 photosynthesis to capture CO2.

C4 photosynthesis is an evolved metabolic mechanism for plant carbon fixation, in which atmospheric CO2 is first incorporated into a 4-carbon intermediate molecule. It allows for a more efficient process compared to C3 photosynthesis, especially in non-optimal water availability conditions and in the presence of high solar radiation.

Plants that use C4 photosynthesis to capture CO2. The Poaceae family (grasses) accounts for about half of the C4 species.

The use of observations, or in some cases a reference model, during model development to ensure that the model output compares favourably with the properties of the system being modelled.

Hunting of animals in confined enclosures where they are unable to escape.

An economic policy instrument in which the State sets an overall environmental target (the cap) and assigns environmental impact allowances (or quotas) to actors that they can trade among each other.

Defined by the United Nations Development Programme as the process through which individuals, organisations and societies obtain, strengthen and maintain their capabilities to set and achieve their own development objectives over time. Within the context of this assessment, these capabilities include human resources and technical capacity required to support scenario analysis and modelling.

Process through which individuals, organizations and society obtain, strengthen and maintain their capability to set and achieve their own development objectives over time.

Capacity development can be described across six broad capacity dimensions. Motivational capacity builds awareness and desire to consider multiple values. Analytical capacity provides knowledge and tools to analyse multiple values. Bridging capacity brings together different ways of knowing and doing, often creating new knowledge in the process. Negotiation capacity navigates trade-offs and mainstreams into policy and practice. Social network capacity is the capacity to learn together, act and adapt or transform. Governance capacity creates formal and informal mechanisms for a socially just governance environment. These dimensions embody many concepts and principles for capacity development and recognition in decision making.

Defined by the United Nations Development Programme as “the process through which individuals, organizations and societies obtain, strengthen and maintain their capabilities to set and achieve their own development objectives over time”.

Defined by the United Nations Development Programme as the process through which individuals, organizations and societies obtain, strengthen and maintain their capabilities to set and achieve their own development objectives over time. IPBES promotes and facilitates capacity-building, to improve the capacity of countries to make informed policy decisions on biodiversity and ecosystem-services.

A type of good that can be consumed now. However, if consumption is deferred there becomes an increased supply of that good which is likely to remain available. In a fundamental sense, capital consists of any produced thing that can enhance a person’s power to perform economically useful or other beneficial work. Capital may be monetary, well-being or environmental or any combination of those goods.

The process by which carbon is exchanged among the ecosystems of the Earth.

The carbon cycle is the process by which carbon is exchanged among the ecosystems of the Earth.

A way to place emissions of various radiative forcing agents on a common footing by accounting for their effect on climate. It describes, for a given mixture and amount of greenhouse gases, the amount of CO2 that would have the same global warming ability, when measured over a specified time period. For the purpose of this report, greenhouse gas emissions (unless otherwise specified) are the sum of the basket of greenhouse gases listed in Annex A to the Kyoto Protocol, expressed as CO2e assuming a 100-year global warming potential.

A measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions, including carbon dioxide equivalents, that is directly and indirectly caused by an activity or is accumulated over the life stages of a product.

A compensation for carbon dioxide emissions resulting from industrial or other human activity; a quantifiable amount of such compensation as a tradable commodity.

The long-term storage of carbon in plants, soils, geologic formations, and the ocean. Carbon sequestration occurs both naturally and as a result of anthropogenic activities and typically refers to the storage of carbon that has the immediate potential to become carbon dioxide gas.

A method of reducing greenhouse gases by injecting carbon dioxide produced in other kinds of industrial processes into deep underground wells or beds of underground materials so that it does not enter the atmosphere. Transfer of atmospheric CO2 into long-lived pools and storing it securely so it is not immediately reemitted.

Any process, activity or mechanism that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The biological process by which carbon in the form carbon dioxide is taken up from the atmosphere and incorporated through photosynthesis into different compartments of ecosystems, such as biomass, wood, or soil organic carbon. Also, the technological process of capturing waste carbon dioxide from industry or power generation, and storing it so that it will not enter the atmosphere.

The technological process of capturing waste carbon dioxide from industry or power generation, and storing it so that it will not enter the atmosphere.

A compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the governments on business profits, or added to the cost of goods, services, and transactions in proportion to the consequential amounts of carbon released into the atmosphere.

See 'Carbon sequestration'.

Refers to the tendency for certain carbon-intensive technological systems to persist over time, ‘locking out' lower-carbon alternatives, and owing to a combination of linked technical, economic, and institutional factors.

In ecology, the carrying capacity of a species in an environment is the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely. The term is also used more generally to refer to the upper limit of habitats, ecosystems, landscapes, waterscapes or seascapes to provide tangible and intangible goods and services (including aesthetic and spiritual services) in a sustainable way.

The upper limit of habitats, ecosystems, landscapes, waterscapes or seascapes or any other appropriate geographic unit to provide tangible and intangible goods and services (including aesthetics and spiritual services) in a sustained way without altering its bio-geo-chemical characteristics, ecosystem functions and endangering its own resilience to climate change, natural and anthropogenic perturbations.

The IPBES catalogue of policy support tools and methodologies is an evolving online resource with two main goals. The first goal is to enable decision-makers to gain easy access to information on policy support tools and methodologies to better inform and assist the different phases of policy-making and implementation. The second goal is to allow a range of users to provide input to the catalogue and assess the usability of tools and methodologies in their specific contexts, including resources required and types of outputs that can be obtained, thus helping to identify and bridge gaps with respect to available tools and methodologies.

When the cause produces its effects in a remote and indirect manner, an explanation has to rely on causal chains, i.e. a continuous chain of causal mechanisms, where each step links a cause or combination of causes with its direct outcome, the latter being a direct cause of the subsequent outcome.

A causal effect can be defined in many ways, but essentially it amounts to the change in an outcome Y brought about by the change in a factor X. If X is a cause of Y then knowing something about X should help to predict something about Y that cannot be provided by another variable.

One hundred years.

Ceremonial uses are defined as uses of wild species in spiritual observances and practices valued for their role in maintaining cultural identity and social reproduction.

In this document the authors and reviewers have assigned categories of certainty to the information that is included. These are: Well established (q.v.); Established but incomplete (q.v.); Unresolved (q.v.); and, Inconclusive (q.v.).

In the context of IPBES, the summary terms to describe the state of knowledge are the following: Well established (Certainty term (q.v.)): comprehensive meta-analysis or other synthesis or multiple independent studies that agree.; Established but incomplete (Certainty term (q.v.)): general agreement although only a limited number of studies exist but no comprehensive synthesis and, or the studies that exist imprecisely address the question.; Unresolved (Certainty term (q.v.)): multiple independent studies exist but conclusions do not agree.; Inconclusive (Certainty term (q.v.)): limited evidence, recognising major knowledge gaps.

In the context of IPBES, the summary terms to describe the state of knowledge are the following: Well established (certainty term): comprehensive meta-analysis or other synthesis or multiple independent studies that agree.; Established but incomplete (certainty term): general agreement although only a limited number of studies exist but no comprehensive synthesis and, or the studies that exist imprecisely address the question.; Unresolved (certainty term): multiple independent studies exist but conclusions do not agree.; Inconclusive (certainty term): limited evidence, recognising major knowledge gaps.

A procedure by which a third party gives written assurance that a product, process or service is in conformity with certain environmental standards.

A list of principles that certification schemes need to satisfy in order to be effective and credible.

Any species that has popular appeal and is used to focus attention on conservation campaigns.

Species that has a privileged value for a group (academic or not academic) and is used to focus attention on conservation campaigns (in the case of NGOs and environmentalists) or considered as a heritage (3 characters: inherited from ancestor, supposed to be transmitted to the next generation, sustainably managed) and in which the group identifies him-self.

Synthesis of organic compounds (as in living cells) by energy derived from inorganic chemical reactions.

Ecosystems including hot vents, cold seeps, mud volcanoes and sulphidic brine pools are highly fractured and diverse deep-water habitats shaped by dynamic, small- and large-scale geological processes, which vary substantially in time and space.

A regenerative system in which resource input and waste, emission, and energy leakage are minimized by slowing, closing, and narrowing material and energy loops. This can be achieved through long-lasting design, maintenance, repair, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing, and recycling.

Citizen science refers to research collaborations in which volunteers and scientists partner to answer real-world questions, typically through a connected interface. A major setback of citizen science projects is that they require some level of computer l.

Actors living in the area / context of interest that are directly or indirectly impacted by decisions / recommendations and hold their own (subjective) interest.

Civil society, according to Gramsci, is broader than the institutionally recognized organizations, unions, associations and other pressure groups. It considers citizens as historical subjects capable of both understanding and changing the world around them, instead of being passive recipients of a readymade ideology. The Internet and other new information and communication technologies facilitate the rise of self-organized, leaderless movements, allowing a rapid and efficient mobilization of citizens.

A group of organisms believed to comprise all the evolutionary descendants of a common ancestor.

Defined in Article 12 of the Protocol, allows a country with an emission-reduction or emission-limitation commitment under the Kyoto Protocol (Annex B Party) to implement an emission-reduction project in developing countries. Such projects can earn saleable certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tone of CO2, which can be counted towards meeting Kyoto targets.

Climate is the average weather, or more rigorously, its 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. 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. In the ocean, climate change is manifested as altered hydrologic conditions including temperature, oxygen, sea level, the carbonate system, and related changes in productivity, mixing and circulation.

As defined in Article 1 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 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.