C L I M AT E C H A N G E A N D T H E W O R L D B A N K G R O U P
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Combined-cycle turbine
A relatively efficient technology for power generation from combustion, usually of natural gas.
Demand-side management
Actions or incentives, often directed by energy utilities to their customers, to reduce the level of energy demands (typically through efficiency measures) or change the timing of those demands.
District heating
Centralized system for the provision of steam heat to an urban neighborhood or district.
Ecosystem
The interacting system of a biological community and its nonliving environmental surroundings.
Emission
In this volume, emission primarily refers to the anthropogenic release of greenhouse gases, as from fossil fuel combustion or deforestation. Used also to refer to other kinds of air pollution from combustion, such as particulates and sulfur oxides.
Energy services company
A company that provides clients with some combination of assessment, financing, and implementation of options for increased efficiency of use and reduced expenditure on energy.
Environment
The sum of all external conditions affecting the life, development, and survival of an organism.
Environmental assessment
A process whose breadth, depth, and type of analysis depend on the proposed project. It evaluates a project’s potential environmental risks and impacts in its area of influence and identifies ways of improving project design and implementation by preventing, minimizing, mitigating, or compensating for adverse environmental impacts and by enhancing positive impacts.
Environmental impact
Any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organization’s activities, products, or services (as defined in ISO 14001).
Environmental mainstreaming
The integration of environmental concerns into macroeconomic and sectoral interventions.
Environmental sustainability
Ensuring that the overall productivity of accumulated human and physical capital resulting from development actions more than compensates for the direct or indirect loss or degradation of the environment. Goal 7 of the UN Millennium Development Goals specifically refers to this, in part, as integrating the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reversing loss of environmental resources.
Gas flaring
Burning of natural gas, usually when released as an unintended by-product of oil production.