Additionality means that a renewable energy or carbon offset project is beyond business as usual. It is a concept that is intended to determine which projects would have been built anyway without the added incentive of a functioning carbon or renewable energy market, which can bring additional sources of revenue to (and thus, greater incentive to build) a project. Additionality is the cornerstone of any carbon offset project, since it proves to consumers that their purchases are making a difference.
Cap and Trade
Cap and trade is an approach used to control carbon dioxide pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in emissions. A cap for pollution is established and reduced overtime. Companies that reduce their emissions faster than the cap can trade their extra reductions to companies that have reduced their emissions more slowly.
Carbon Credit Registries
Organizations with electronic accounting systems that keep track of emission allowances or carbon credits of companies participating in the carbon market.
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
CO2 is a chemical compound built of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom. Carbon dioxide pollution is the leading cause of climate change.
Carbon Footprint
A measure of your environmental impact from everyday activities such as flying, driving, and using electricity. A "carbon footprint" is most often expressed in pounds or metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Carbon Offsets
A greenhouse gas emission reduction (offset) represents the reduction of a specific quantity of greenhouse gases. When you purchase an offset, you alone have the right to all associated claims about the environmental benefits it embodies. An offset is to be regarded as real environmental commodity, not a donation or investment in a future project.
Carbon Reduction Project
A carbon reduction project is a business initiative that receives funding because of the reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that will result from the projects efforts.
Carbon Standards
Ensures carbon offsets that businesses and consumers buy can be trusted and have real environmental benefits and include the Gold Standard, Voluntary Carbon Standard and VER , among others.
Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM)
A system in the Kyoto Protocol allowing countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to purchase carbon offsets from projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries.
Greenhouse Gases
Greenhouse gases are gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and man made that effect the temperature of the earth. The primary GHG include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions .These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.
Kyoto Emissions Trading Mechanisms Assigned Amount Units (AAU), Emission Reduction Units (ERU) and Certified Emission Reductions (CER) are defined by the Kyoto Protocol as criteria for annex 1 countries to achieve emission reduction targets.
An AAU is a unit of allowed emissions, or "assigned amounts"
An emission reduction unit (ERU) is generated by a joint implementation project
A certified emission reduction (CER) is generated from a clean development mechanism project activity
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)
RGGI is the first mandatory, market-based effort in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ten Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states have pledged to cap and then reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector 10% by 2018. States sell emission allowances through auctions and invest proceeds in consumer benefits: energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other clean energy technologies.
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy (also referred to as clean energy, or green energy) is defined as "energy derived from resources that are regenerative or for all practical purposes can not be depleted." Renewable energy sources contribute approximately 25% of human energy use worldwide.
Renewable Energy Certificate (REC)
Renewable Energy Certificate (RECs) are also know as Green tags or Tradable Renewable Certificates (TRCs). They are a market mechanism that represents the environmental benefits associated with generating electricity from renewable energy sources. A wind farm is credited with one Renewable Energy Credit for every 1000 kWh of electricity it produces. A certifying agency gives each REC a unique identification number to make sure it doesn't get double-counted. The clean energy is then fed into the electrical grid.
Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)
A Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is a regulatory policy that requires the increased production of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal energies.
Verified Emission Reductions (VERs)
A Verified Emission Reduction (VER) is a reduction of one ton of greenhouse gas (GHG) carbon equivalent below a defined baseline or regulatory requirement. VERs allow GHG emitters to "balance" emissions of GHGs produced in one place by procuring GHG reductions from somewhere else (whether next door or around the world), thus meeting either voluntary or mandatory emissions reduction targets.
