Brush Up on Your Climate Change Lingo with UCT’s COP17 Glossary

The University of Cape Town‘s Monday Paper has put together an unofficial glossary of climate change terms for those uninitiated and confused by COP17 (that’s short for the “17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”), which is currently taking place in Durban.

So, get acquainted with AOSIS, BAP, SIDS, G77 and G-8 (not, “like a G6″) with this helpful list.

For more on the implications of climate change, take a look at Politics of Climate Justice and Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society by Patrick Bond.

CDM – Clean Development Mechanism. A project-based emissions trading system under the Kyoto Protocol that allows industrialised countries to use emission reduction credits from projects in developing countries that both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable development.

COP – Conference of the Parties to the Climate Convention. The supreme body of the Convention. Currently it meets once a year to review the Convention’s progress. The word ‘conference’ is not used here in the sense of ‘meeting’ but rather of ‘association’, which explains the seemingly redundant expression “fourth session of the Conference of the Parties”.

DC – Developing country.

EIT – Economy in transition. EITs typically include the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (eg Poland), the former Soviet Union (eg Russia), and Central Asian Republics (eg Kazakhstan).

• Complete article: Monday Paper

• Complete glossary

Book details

• Politics of Climate Justice: Paralysis Above, Movement Below by Patrick Bond
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  EAN: 9781869142216
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• Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society edited by Patrick Bond, Rehana Dada, Graham Erion
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781869141417
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

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