BASIC CLIMATE CHANGE TERMINOLOGY
Submitted by christian on Thu, 04/22/2021 - 18:37
- Climate Change: It refers to a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer). Climate Change may be due to natural processes or external forcing or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land-use. This means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global 19 atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) uses the term “Climate Change” for human-caused change and “climate variability” for other changes.
- Climate Change Adaptation: Adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities is known as Climate Change Adaptation.
- Climate Change Adaptation Strategy: A general plan of action of any country for addressing the impacts of Climate Change including climate variability and extremes is known as Climate Change Adaptation Strategy of a country. It may include a mix of policies and measures selected to meet the overarching objective of reducing the country’s vulnerability. Depending on the circumstances, the strategy can be comprehensive at a national level, addressing adaptation across sectors, regions and vulnerable populations or it can be more limited, focusing on just one or two sectors or regions.
- Climate Change Impacts: The effect of Climate Change on natural and human systems is known as Climate Change Impacts. Depending on the consideration of adaptation, one can distinguish between potential impacts and residual impacts
- Climate Change Impact Assessment: Impacts that affect ecosystems or human welfare but that are not directly linked to market transactions, for example, an increased risk of premature death. The analysis of positive and negative consequences of Climate Changes on natural systems and human societies, both with and without adaptation to such changes is known as Climate Change Impact Assessment.
- Climate Change Mitigation: Strategies and policies that reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere either by reducing their emissions or by increasing their capture is known as Climate Change Mitigation.
- Climate Change Scenario: A coherent and internally-consistent description of the change in climate by a certain time in the future using a 20 specific modeling technique and under specific assumptions about the growth of greenhouse gas and other emissions and about other factors that may influence climate in the future is known as Climate Change Scenario. A “Climate Change Scenario” is the difference between a climate scenario and the current climate. A plausible and often simplified representation of the future climate based on an internally consistent set of climatological relationships, that has been constructed for explicit use in investigating the potential consequences of anthropogenic climate change, often serving as input to impact models. Climate projections often serve as the raw material for constructing climate scenarios but climate scenarios usually require additional information such as about the observed current climate.
- Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment: A range of tools that exist to help communities understand the hazards that affect them and take appropriate measures to minimize their potential impact is known as Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment.
- Climate Hazard: The harmful effect of Climate Change on livelihoods and ecosystems is known as climate hazard. They can be caused by gradual climate variability or extreme weather events. Some hazards are continuous phenomena that start slowly such as the increasing unpredictability of temperatures and rainfall. Others are sudden but relatively discrete events such as heat waves or floods.
- Climate Model: A numerical representation of the climate system based on the physical, chemical and biological properties of its components, their interactions and feedback processes and accounting for all or some of its known properties is known as climate model. The climate system can be represented by models of varying complexity - that is, for any one component or combination of components a “hierarchy” of models can be identified differing in such aspects as the number of spatial dimensions, the extent to which physical, chemical or biological processes are explicitly represented or the level at which empirical parameterizations are involved. Coupled Atmosphere/Ocean/Sea-ice General Circulation Models (AOGCMs) provide a comprehensive representation of the climate system. There is an evolution towards more complex models with active chemistry and biology. Climate models are applied as search tool to study and simulate the climate but also for operational purposes, including monthly, seasonal and inter-annual climate predictions.
- Climate Prediction: A climate prediction or climate forecast is the result of an attempt to produce a most likely description or estimate of the actual evolution of the climate in the future (for e.g. at seasonal, inter-annual or long-term time-scales).
- Climate Profile: An analysis (often in graphical form) representing the extent to which something exhibits various characteristics, such as biographical sketch is known as climate profile.
- Climate Projection: A projection of the response of the climate system to emission or concentration scenarios of greenhouse gases and aerosols, or radiative forcing scenarios, often based upon simulations by climate models is known as climate projection. Climate projections are distinguished from climate predictions; it depend upon the emission/ concentration/radiative forcing scenario used which are based on assumptions concerning, for example, future socio-economic and technological developments that may or may not be realized and are therefore subject to substantial uncertainty.
- Climate Risk: The likelihood that the harmful effects will happen is known as climate risk or it is a measure of the probability of harm to life, property and the environment that would occur if a hazard took place. Risk is estimated by combining the probability of events and the consequences (usually seen as losses) that would arise if the events took place. It denotes the result of the interaction of physically defined hazards with the properties of the exposed systems i.e. their sensitivity or social vulnerability. Risk can also be considered as the combination of an event, its likelihood and its consequences i.e. risk equals the probability of climate hazard multiplied by a given system’s vulnerability.
- Climate Sensitivity: A measure of how responsive the temperature of the climate system is to a change in the radiative forcing is known as climate sensitivity. It is usually expressed as the temperature change associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere.
- Climate Shift: An abrupt shift or jump in mean values signaling a change in climate regime is known as climate shift.
- Climate System: The climate system is the highly complex system consisting of five major components: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the land surface and the biosphere and the interactions between them. The climate system evolves in time under the influence of its own internal dynamics and because of external forcing such as volcanic eruptions, solar variations and anthropogenic forcing such as the changing composition of the atmosphere and land use change.
- Climate Trend: The general direction in which climate factors such as average annual temperature or rainfall tend to move over time is known as climate trend.
- Climate Variability: Variations in the mean state and other statistics (such as standard deviations, the occurrence of extremes, etc.) of the climate on all spatial and temporal scales beyond that of individual weather events is known as climate variability.
- Climate Variation: Change in the statistical properties of the climate system when considered over periods of decades or longer, regardless of cause is known as climate variation.
- Climatology (Climate Science): The study of climate, scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time is known as climatology.
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