The climate lexicon

Balancing greenhouse gases emitted with equivalent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, using carbon removal insets/offsets when the balance can’t be achieved with rapid decarbonisation.

The term we use at Eden. We aim to exceed net zero carbon emissions, committing to a decarbonisation pathway that actively absorbs more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it puts in.

Actively absorbs more carbon (as a source for good) in to nature than it takes from it. I.e. from gas to solid.

Some use the term carbon positive, some use carbon negative to describe that more carbon dioxide is being taken from the atmosphere than put in. Both terms have their value but we feel confuse people hence using climate positive. 

= carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2eq).

CO2eq includes CO2, the main culprit, and other greenhouse gases such as methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) water vapour (H2O), fluorinated gases…

When the climate language speaks of ‘carbon’ and ‘low carbon’, it’s generally shorthand for greenhouse gas/carbon dioxide equivalents unless otherwise stated.

Works in a cycle – as does nature ‒ rather than in a linear fashion. No waste or pollution, circulates products and materials, regenerates nature. 

Eden has signed up to Race to Zero via our official UN partner, Planet Mark. The campaign is designed to turn climate pledges into action. Members (which includes businesses, cities, regions, investors and universities) pledge to achieving net zero by 2050, and deliver a decarbonisation plan aligned with limiting climate change to a 1.5˚C rise.

• Pledge: Publicly from top of organisation
• Plan: Explain actions and strategy within 6-12 months
• Proceed: immediately in line with specified targets
• Publish: progress against targets annually

Generating a net benefit of environmental, social and economic good rather than minimising harm. Do good rather than less bad.

An action intended to compensate for the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as a result of human activity, especially when quantified and traded as part of a commercial scheme.

• Carbon removal credits, considered the strongest form of offset, physically remove existing emissions
• Carbon avoidance (or compensation) credits aim to prevent future emissions

Offsetting emissions through a carbon offset project within your own value chain – e.g. growing your own woodland or avoiding, reducing or absorbing emissions within your organisation’s own value chain.

Coined by Bill McDonough – everything is a resource for something else – a circular economy that gets rid of the concept of ‘waste’. There is no such place as away! This is how interconnected, natural systems work. 

Carbon is a resource not a toxin, currently and urgently we just need to have less as a gas and more as a solid.

Check out the book 'Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things', by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, 2009.