the Kyoto Protocol – that may reappear in other countries not bound by such limits. For example, multinational corporations may shift factories from developed to developing countries to escape restrictions on emissions. Least-cost scenarios: Climate change mitigation scenarios assuming that emission reductions start immediately after the model base year, and are distributed optimally over time, sectors and regions, such that aggregate costs of reaching the climate target are minimized. Likely chance: A likelihood greater than 66 per cent chance. Used in this assessment to convey the probabilities of meeting temperature limits. Lock-in: Lock-in occurs when a market is stuck with a standard even though participants would be better off with an alternative. Medium chance: A likelihood of 50–66 per cent chance. Used in this report to convey the probabilities of meeting temperature limits.
investors. More broadly, non-state actors have been defined as entities that participate or act in international relations. They are organizations with sufficient power to influence and cause a change even though they do not belong to any state institution. Offset (in climate policy): A unit of CO2-equivalent emissions that is reduced, avoided, or sequestered to compensate for emissions occurring elsewhere. Party: A state (or regional economic integration organization such as the EU) that agrees to be bound by a treaty and for which the treaty has entered into force. Pledge case: This case identifies the maximum level of GHG emissions that each country or Party could emit in 2020 and still meet its pledge – without considering the use of offsets. Readiness: REDD+ country actions – including capacity building, policy design, consultation and consensus building, and testing and evaluation of a REDD+ national strategy – that are taken prior to the comprehensive implementation of REDD+.
Mitigation: In the context of climate change, a human intervention to reduce the sources, or enhance the sinks of GHGs. Examples include using fossil fuels more efficiently for industrial processes or electricity generation, switching to solar energy or wind power, improving the insulation of buildings and expanding forests and other ‘sinks’ to remove greater amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere.
REDD+: Reducing forest degradation of conservation, and enhancement countries.
Monitoring, reporting and verification: A process/concept that potentially supports greater transparency in the climate change regime.
Reforestation: Planting of forests on lands that have previously contained forests but that have been converted to some other use.
Montreal Protocol: The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances in order to reduce their abundance in the atmosphere, and thereby protect the Earth’s ozone layer.
Rehabilitation (forest): Restoration of the capacity of degraded forest land to deliver forest products and services. Forest rehabilitation re-establishes the original productivity of the forest and some, but not necessarily all, of the plant and animal species thought to be originally present at a site.
Mosaic restoration: This integrates trees into mixed-use landscapes, such as agricultural lands and settlements, where trees can support people through improved water quality, increased soil fertility, and other ecosystem services. This type of restoration is more likely in deforested or degraded forest landscapes with moderate population density (10-100 people/km2). Net negative emissions: A situation of net negative emissions is achieved when, as a result of human activities, more GHGs are sequestered or stored than are released into the atmosphere.
emissions from deforestation and in developing countries; and the role sustainable management of forests of forest carbon stocks in developing
Reference scenario: See Baseline/reference.
Restoration forest: Restoration of a degraded forest to its original state – that is, to re-establish the presumed structure, productivity and species diversity of the forest originally present at a site. Results-based payments: Payments for fully measured, reported and verified emission reductions (or removals), also conditional upon the country having a national strategy/action plan for REDD+, a national forest monitoring system, national forest reference emission level and/or forest reference level, a safeguard information system and a summary of information on how safeguards have been addressed and respected.
Non-Annex I Parties: The countries that have ratified or acceded to the UNFCCC that are not included in Annex I of the Convention.
Scenario: A description of how the future may unfold based on ‘if-then’ propositions. Scenarios typically include an initial socio-economic situation and a description of the key driving forces and future changes in emissions, temperature or other climate change-related variables.
Non-state actor: In the context of climate action, ‘non-state actor’ includes companies, cities, subnational regions and
Sink: Any process, activity or mechanism which removes a GHG, an aerosol or a precursor of a GHG from the
No-policy scenario: See Baseline/reference.
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The Emissions Gap Report 2015 – Glossary