From the book: Green Technology Strategies

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Glossary

A

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, or enhancement of greenhouse gas removal from the atmosphere by sinks.

From: Draft National Carbon Offset Standard, Australian Department of Climate Change,19 December 2008

Business as Usual - used in the context of predicting future data on the basis of existing practices.

(CO2- e) A standard measure that takes account of the different global warming potentials of greenhouse gases and expresses the cumulative effect in a common unit.

From: Draft National Carbon Offset Standard, Australian Department of Climate Change,19 December 2008

A measure of the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions attributable to an activity; it is commonly used at an individual, household or organisation, product and service level.

From: Draft National Carbon Offset Standard, Australian Department of Climate Change,19 December 2008

Commonly refers to a situation where the net emissions associated with an organisation's activities, product or service are zero.

From: Draft National Carbon Offset Standard, Australian Department of Climate Change,19 December 2008

Represents a reduction in greenhouse gases relative to a businessas-usual baseline. Carbon offsets are tradeable and often used to negate (or offset) all or part of another entity's emissions.

From: Draft National Carbon Offset Standard, Australian Department of Climate Change,19 December 2008

(CER) A Kyoto unit corresponding to one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, and issued for verified emission reductions or removals achieved by projects approved under the Clean Development Mechanism.

From: Draft National Carbon Offset Standard, Australian Department of Climate Change,19 December 2008

See: Carbon dioxide equivalence (CO₂e). See: Carbon dioxide equivalence: (CO₂- e).

(GWP) A system of multipliers devised to enable warming effects of different gases to be compared. For example, over the next 100 years, a gram of methane in the atmosphere is currently estimated as having 21 times the warming effect as a gram of carbon dioxide; methane's 100-year global warming potential is thus 21.

From: Draft National Carbon Offset Standard, Australian Department of Climate Change,19 December 2008

The atmospheric gases responsible for causing global warming and climate change. The major GHGs are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N20), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).

From: Draft National Carbon Offset Standard, Australian Department of Climate Change,19 December 2008

One billion (thousand million) metric tonnes of CO2e (see: Carbon dioxide equivalent).

From: Carbon dioxide equivalent, Wikipedia, 2008

An international treaty created under the UNFCCC in 1997. It entered into force in 2005. Among other things, the Kyoto Protocol sets binding targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries. It includes individual emission reduction targets for Annex I countries to be met within the first commitment period of 2008-12.

From: Draft National Carbon Offset Standard, Australian Department of Climate Change,19 December 2008

"A mega joule is a unit of energy consumption. This relates all types of fuel to the amount of energy contained within that fuel. For instance gas, petrol and electricity have varying units of measure (cubic metres, litres, kilowatt hours) and a relevant concentration of energy (Mega joules per unit). When these are multiplied, we can know the exact amount of energy used. For instance, electricity is measured in electrical load times by length of load (ie kilowatt hours). To convert KWH into MJ, we simply multiply by 3.6. "

Reference: http://www.livedata.com.au/intranetservices/history.asp?moduleID=2

Metric tons of CO₂e (see: carbon dioxide equivalent).

From: CLIMATE CHANGE CAUCUS, U.S. House of Representatives, undated

Definition:

This is a way of expressing very dilute concentrations of substances. Just as per cent means out of a hundred, so parts per million or ppm means out of a million. Usually describes the concentration of something in water or soil. One ppm is equivalent to 1 milligram of something per liter of water (mg/l) or 1 milligram of something per kilogram soil (mg/kg).

Reference :

http://www.biochem.northwestern.edu/holmgren/Glossary/Definitions/Def-P/parts_per_million.html

http://www.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au/council/pubdocs/ESDGuidelines.pdf

A terawatt hour (TW·h) is a unit of energy equal to 10¹² Watt·hours.

From: Watt-hour, Wikpedia, 6 January 2009

See: terawatt hour

(UNFCCC) An international treaty, adopted in 1992, aimed at achieving the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

From: Draft National Carbon Offset Standard, Australian Department of Climate Change,19 December 2008

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From the book: Green Technology Strategies

This book is about how to reduce carbon emissions and achieve other environmental benefits by using computers and telecommunications technology. It is designed to be used within an online course for professionals, using mentored and collaborative learning techniques.

Title: Green Technology Strategies: Using computers and telecommunications to reduce carbon emissions

Copyright © Tom Worthington, 2009

Publisher: Tomw Communications, PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia. Website: http://www.tomw.net.au/green

• ISBN: 978-0-9806201-7-7 (Website October 2009)
• ISBN: 978-0-9806201-4-6 (Hardcover January 2010)
• ISBN: 978-0-9806201-3-9 (Paperback October 2009)
• ISBN: 978-0-9806201-2-2 (PDF e-Book October 2009)
• ISBN: 978-0-9806201-6-0 (Amazon Kindle e-Book January 2010)
• ISBN: 978-0-9806201-5-3 (Large-print Paperback January 2010)
• IMS Content Package (May 2011)
• Moodle Backup File (May 2011)
• Apple iPad and other ePub readers (June 2011)

New edition available: ICT Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future, September 2011.

These notes are used for the courses:

1. Green ICT Strategies (ACS25): offered in the Postgraduate Program of Open Universities Australia and available from 2010 to students of Curtin University, Griffith University, Macquarie University, Monash University, RMIT University, Swinburne University and the University of South Australia,

2. Green Technology Strategies: offered in the Computer Professional Education Program, Australian Computer Society (first run as "Green ICT Strategies" in February 2009), and

3. Green Information Technology Strategies (COMP7310), in the Graduate Studies Select program, Australian National University (first run July 2009).

The notes were first published as an electronic and paperback book in 2009 (Green ICT, Tom Worthington, Tomw Communications, 2009). Students can download or print their own copy of the e-book from the course learning management system, which is likely to be more up to date.

Green Technology Strategies: Using computers and telecommunications to reduce carbon emissions by Tom Worthington is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License, except for institutions covered by a Copyright Agency Ltd Statutory Licence.