GLOSSARY

The realm of carbon markets possesses its unique lexicon—a realm defined by distinctive terminology, myriad acronyms, and precise concepts or definitions. This library aims to establish a definitive reference point for utilizing names and acronyms, serving as a Jargonary, while fostering a shared comprehension of the frequently referenced concepts through a Glossary.

Term/Acronym	Definition
1.5 Degree pathway	In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed that to limit global warming to 1.5°C, the world needs to halve CO2 emissions by around 2030 and reach net-zero CO2 emissions by mid-century. In addition, the IPCC stresses the need for deep reductions in non-CO2 emissions across the economy to achieve this limit. Mitigation pathways that limit warming to 1.5°C without relying on unsustainable levels of carbon sequestration require a profound and far-reaching abatement of GHG emissions across the economy. Scenarios with a 66% probability of limiting warming to 1.5°C reach a level of abatement of about 90% of all GHG emissions by mid-century. From Science Based Targets.
A/R Projects	(a) Can include planting trees (b) Can include single-species plantations (c) Can apply all silvicultural systems. For example: i. Conservation forests (no use of timber) ii. Forests with selective harvesting iii. Rotation forestry
Actors (clarification of)	One entity or person might represent more than one actor depending on the activity performed.
Averted Disability Adjusted Life Years (ADALYS)	ADALYs are a commonly used metric for public health reporting. They represent the number of years of healthy life made possible by a given intervention and can also be used to calculate the economic cost of poor health.
American National Standards Institute (ANSI)	External accreditation entity, regulating SC for the accreditation of ISO 14065 and ISO 140644 scope 1 External accreditation entity, regulating SC for the accreditation of ISO 14065 and ISO 140644 scope 1
Carbon Offset Scheme	Allows individuals and companies to invest in environmental projects around the world to balance out their carbon footprints.
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)	Clean Development Mechanism
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)	The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), 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 tonne of CO2, which can be counted towards meeting Kyoto targets.
Claim	Any detailed or headline approach to conveying the reportable or narrative climate mitigation progress and status of a company and/or the contribution of a specific activity. Note: This definition is used by the Sales Team and the Value Change Initiative (VCI), and it does not refer to a complaint/problem.
Climate Footprint (CF)	Amount of carbon dioxide emissions associated with all the activities of a person or other entity. It includes direct emissions, such as those that result from fossil fuel combustion, as well as emissions required to produce the electricity associated with goods and services consumed.
Climate Neutrality	A state where human activities result in no net effect on the climate system. To achieve such a state, relevant bio-geophysical changes due to human activities (e.g., changes to the earth’s surface reflectivity or a regional water system) would need to be avoided and net-zero emissions would need to be achieved. From Science Based Targets.
Conflict of Interest (CoI)	A conflict of interest exists when two or more contradictory interests relate to an activity by an individual or an institution. The conflict lies in the situation, not in any behavior or lack of behavior of the individual. That means that a conflict of interest is not intrinsically a bad thing.
Corrective actions (CA)	Corrective action (CA) is the activities taken to eliminate the cause of a process nonconformity. Corrective action is the activity of reacting to a process problem, getting it under control through containment actions, and then taking the action needed to stop it from happening again.
Deviation	Result of an action that did not follow the stablish process. That require investigation for problem solving and process improvement.
Emission Factor (EF)	EFs are defined as “a representative value that attempts to relate the quantity of a pollutant released to the atmosphere with an activity associated with the release of that pollutant.” Typically for GHGs, EFs are expressed as the mass of a gas per unit of the emissions-producing activity or material input, such as kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted per tonne of bituminous coal combusted.
Environmental Markets (EM)	Environmental markets are innovative policy approaches to leverage funding for environmental conservation on private lands. Environmental markets can serve as a complement to traditional conservation programs.
Environmental Social Governance (ESG)	ESG is a framework that helps stakeholders understand how an organization is managing risks and opportunities related to environmental, social, and governance criteria (sometimes called ESG factors). ESG takes the holistic view that sustainability extends beyond just environmental issues.
Finding	The result from an audit process that evaluates audit evidence and compares it against audit criteria. Audit Findings show that the audit criteria are being met (conformity) or they are not being met (non-conformity).
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)	The Forest Stewardship Council GmbH (FSC) is an international non-profit, multistakeholder organization established in 1993 that promotes responsible management of the world’s forests via timber certification. This organization uses a market-based approach to transnational environmental policy.
GHG Emission Reduction Targets	Goals set by an organisation or political actor, which aim to reduce the organization or political actor’s direct or indirect emissions by a specified amount. Science-based GHG emission reduction targets ensure that companies reduce their emissions at a rate that is consistent with the level of decarbonisation required to limit warming to 1.5ºC or well-below 2ºC.
Gold Standard for the Global Goals (GS4GG)	The Gold Standard for the Global Goals (“GS4GG”) is a standard that certifies the positive effects of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in results-based finance. It covers a range of advantages including water, renewable energy, health, and gender equality. This certification enables project developers to quantify the value of their project’s impacts in monetary terms and provides project funders with the highest level of confidence that the intended results have been achieved.
Gold Standard Foundation (GSF).	Gold Standard for the Global Goals is a standard that sets requirements to design projects for maximum positive impact in climate and development — and to measure and report outcomes in the most credible and efficient way.
Governance	System by which an organization makes and implements decisions in pursuit of its objectives to ensure accountability, transparency, responsiveness, rule of law, stability, equity and inclusiveness, empowerment, and broad-based participation
Greenhouse Gas (GHG)	Greenhouse gases are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. What distinguishes them from other gases is that they absorb the wavelengths of radiation that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect.
Impact	Strong effect or influence that something has on a situation or person. Term used within OKRs to measure the effect of the results achieved from the client/user perspective.
International Society and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling (ISEAL)	The ISEAL Alliance is an association of leading voluntary international standard-setting and conformity assessment organizations that focus on social and environmental issues. ISEAL Alliance members collaborate to build international recognition and legitimacy for their programs.
International Standards Organization (ISO)	ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 169 national standards bodies. Through its members, it brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market relevant International Standards that support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges.
Interventions	An intervention is an umbrella term for any action that introduces a change to a Scope 3 Activity, for example new technology, practice or supply change (for example to a different product input or sourcing location) to reduce emissions. An Intervention may include changes to several activities that reduce or sequester emissions in different ways and that may or may not be included within the Scope 3 Inventory. From Scope 3 Value Chain Intervention Guidance
Key results	Set of quantitative and achievable metrics that define the success of an objective. Under each objective, define 3-4 key results which are ambitious and adds value to your goal. Key results should be challenging, exponential growth, limited and measurable.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)	Measurable values that determine how effectively an individual, team or organization is achieving a business objective. Organizations use KPIs to help individuals at all levels focus their work towards achieving a common goal (Key results). KPIs also help businesses understand whether they’re spending utilizing their time, and budget and talent on the right strategies, tasks and tools in order to achieve its Objectives.
Land Use Forestry (LUF)	The Land Use & Forests projects include Afforestation/Reforestation or Agriculture projects.
Least developed countries (LDC)	The least developed countries are developing countries listed by the United Nations that exhibit the lowest indicators of socioeconomic development.
Landlocked developing countries (LLDC)	The landlocked developing countries (LLDC) are developing countries that are landlocked. The economic and other disadvantages experienced by such countries makes the majority of landlocked countries the least developed countries (LDCs), with inhabitants of these countries occupying the bottom billion tier of the world’s population in terms of poverty.
Monitoring, Reporting, Verification (MRV)	Monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) are essential elements of climate and development initiatives, ensuring that project investments go further to deliver greater impacts – a key outcome from Gold Standard programmes.
NDC’s	The NDC Partnership is a global coalition of more than 170 countries, institutions, and non-state actors collaborating to drive transformational climate action through sustainable development.
Net Zero Emissions	To reach a state of net-zero emissions for companies consistent with achieving net- zero emissions at the global level in line with societal climate and sustainability goals implies two conditions:

	1. To achieve a scale of value-chain emission reductions consistent with the depth of abatement achieved in pathways that limit warming to 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot and;

	2. To neutralise the impact of any source of residual emissions that remains unfeasible to be eliminated by permanently removing an equivalent amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

	Companies may reach a balance between emissions and removals before they reach the depth of decarbonisation required to limit warming to 1.5ºC. While this represents a transient state of net-zero emissions, it is expected that companies will continue their decarbonisation journey until reaching a level of abatement that is consistent with 1.5ºC pathways. From Science Based Targets
Net Zero Targets	Science-based net-zero targets go beyond GHG emission reduction targets (see above) in that they ensure companies also take responsibility for emissions that have yet to be reduced, or that remain unfeasible to be eliminated. From Science Based Targets.
Non-conformity	Is a nonfulfillment, lapse in fulfillment or failure to meet a requirement (see Quality).
Non-governmental Organisation (NGO)	A non-profit organization that operates independently of any government, typically one whose purpose is to address a social or political issue.
Objective	Description of the goal wanted to be achieved. An objective should be short, easily-memorable and inspirational. It acts as an end destination for the vision of your company.
ODA	Official Development Assistance – PD must upload this at Preliminary Review Stage.
PDD	Project Design Document – PD must upload this at Preliminary Review Stage.
Policy	Executive-level set of guidelines that describes the strategy, purpose, goals, principles and scope of the activities within SC.
Procedure	An established sequence of work instructions to be followed within a process in order to assure the expected output is achieved.
Process	Series of actions (triggered by inputs) that bring together people, technology and information in ways that create desire outputs. Processes determine the effectiveness and efficiency of our org’s operations, the quality of our client’s experience and ultimately, our org’s financial success.
Process (End-to-end)	Describes the service from beginning to end that delivers a complete functional solution.
Process owner	Person accountable for optimum definition, functioning by reporting, measuring outcomes, and adjustment (based on continuous improvement) of processes.
Program of Activities (PoA)	A modality of project development under Gold Standard.
Project Area	The Project Area is the physical spatial area or areas submitted for certification. It contains the area required to successfully manage the explicit objectives of the Project. The projects are usually based in developing countries and, most commonly, are designed to reduce future emissions. This might involve rolling out clean energy technologies (RE) or soaking up CO2 directly from the air through the planting of trees (LUF).
Project Developer	The person or entity that holds or is applying for certification and is therefore responsible for demonstrating compliance with the requirements upon which Gold Standard certification is based. The Project Developer shall be one individual or entity only.
Project Types	Microscale, Small scale, Large scale
Quality	The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. A product or service has good quality when it fulfills the requirements specified by the interested party/stakeholder.
RECs	Renewable Energy Certificates, also known as Green tags.
Renewable Energy (RE)	The generation of energy from clean, sustainable, renewable processes.
Review	Assessment conducted once at the outset (i.e. at an early stage of project design and before Listing on the GS Registry) of a Project. As per GSF, there are different review types that a project has to go through to obtain the “Project” Certified” status: PoA Stakeholder consultation, Preliminary Review, Validation, Design Review, Verification, and Performance Review. Additionally, there are external requests that would need to be assessed and might hinder the completion of the activity cycle: Transition request, Deviation, Clarification, Complaint, Appeal, Grievance.
Root Cause Analysis (RCA)	Analytical technique used to determine the basic underlying reason that causes a variance or a defect or a risk
Roster of Experts (RoE)	Experts who are nominated by their respective Governments through the National Focal Points of the Parties under the UNFCCC, to contribute to a number of processes mandated by the COP, CMP, CMA and the subsidiary bodies.
Science Based Targets (SBT)	Science-based targets provide a clearly defined pathway for companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, helping prevent the worst impacts of climate change and future-proof business growth. Targets are considered ‘science-based’ if they are in line with what the latest climate science deems necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement – limiting global warming to well-below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. From sciencebasedtargets.org.
Scope 3 activity	An individual source of emissions included in a scope 3 category. An individual activity, representing a source of emissions that, when summed with other sources of emissions define the overall Emissions Factor. From Scope 3 Value Chain Intervention Guidance.
Scope 3 emissions	All indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions. + Added for the purposes of Scope 3 Guidance: An individual activity, representing a source of emissions that, when summed with other sources of emissions define the overall Emission Factor.
Scope of Work (SoW)	A written document containing a detailed description of a job contract. This term usually refers to the section of a contract or agreement where all expected tasks and deliverables are explained with the purpose of aligning expectations between both parties.
Strategy (Business)	A business strategy outlines the plan of action to achieve the vision and set objectives of an organization and guides the decision-making processes to improve the company’s financial stability in a competing market.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)	The Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet now and into the future.
Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)	See also E-TAC/Energy TAC and L-TAC/LUF RAC.
The Gold Standard Foundation (GS or GSF)	Gold Standard for the Global Goals sets the standard for climate and development interventions to quantify, certify and maximise their impact – creating value for people around the world and the planet we share.
TPDDTEC	Technologies and Practices to Displace Decentralised Thermal Energy Consumption.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)	Also know as Earth Summit, ratified in 1992
Use Value	Tangible features of a commodity (a tradeable object) which can satisfy some human requirement, want or need, or which serves a useful purpose.
User journey	Describes the experiences of the user on a timeline, when interacting with the service.
User-centric	The design of the service is based on the needs, priorities and experiences of the user. It should lead to user satisfaction.
Validation and Verification (VV)	Validation/Verification Bodies (VVBs) play an important role in the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) process, conducting third-party assessments to provide independent confirmation that projects are in line with Gold Standard Requirements.
Validation and Verification Body (VVB)	Validation/Verification Bodies (VVBs) play an important role in the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) process, conducting third-party assessments to provide independent confirmation that projects are in line with Gold Standard Requirements.
Value Chain (VC)	Refers to all of the upstream and downstream activities associated with the operations of the reporting company, including the use of sold products by consumers and the end-of-life treatment of sold products after consumer use. From Scope 3 Standard.
Value Change Initiative (VCI)	A consortium of ambitious, committed organisations writing a playbook for positive change.Co-creates ‘best-practice’ guidance, tools and implementation trajectories alongside recognised standards, civil society and leading corporate actors. Allows companies to gain clarity on how to account and report on impacts achieved, while reducing barriers towards more ambitious targets, and creating incentives for increased investments. Achieves its impact by allowing companies to credibly quantify, verify, allocate and make claims about impacts realised in their value chains, working towards their net zero ambitions.
Vision	A statement that elaborates on the Mission by expressing values, visions, or goals as they relate both internally and externally to the mission. Think values and desired future state, a Vision must be concise as well as inspirational to employees and customers/clients