Sustainability explained

Biodiversity: The diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. According to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, biodiversity is our strongest natural defence against climate change.¹

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS): A three-step process to capture or reuse carbon dioxide where (1) the carbon dioxide emissions are captured from large point sources of emissions such as power generation plans and industrial facilities, (2) captured carbon dioxide is used, compressed, and transported, (3) and permanently stored by injecting into deep subsurface geological formations.

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR): The reduction of the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide through human intervention. Approaches to CDR include bio-based CDR techniques and engineered CDR technologies, including direct air capture. CDR methods are sometimes referred to as negative emissions technologies (NETs) because they are a necessary component of a system that can achieve ‘net negative emissions’, i.e. when CDR exceeds emissions to the atmosphere in a given period.²

Carbon pricing mechanisms: Ways to capture the external costs of greenhouse emissions and tie them to their sources through a price.

Climate change: Climate change refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings such as modulations of the solar cycles, volcanic eruptions, and persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use.

Climate technology: Also known as ‘climate tech’. The physical and digital technologies that will reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions or improve resilience or adaption to the physical impacts of climate change.

Circular economy: The circular economy is a system where waste is reduced to a minimum and nature is regenerated. In a circular economy, products and materials are kept in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting. The circular economy tackles climate change and other global challenges, like biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution, by decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources.³

Direct air capture (DAC): A form of carbon removal which uses machines to draw carbon dioxide from the air. This is different to carbon capture whereby carbon is captured at the point of emission. 

Financed emissions: Absolute emissions that banks and investors finance through their loans and investments.⁴

Fossil fuels: Hydrocarbon containing materials of biological origin such as coal, oil, and natural gas, and are typically burned for energy production, releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Green hydrogen: Hydrogen produced using electricity from renewable energy sources to electrolyse water, splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen, with no carbon emissions. Hydrogen is the lightest chemical element, which has a variety of industrial and energy applications and can be produced in different ways, resulting in it being referred to as various colours, be it green, grey, pink etc.

Greenhouse gases (GHG): Gases in the earth’s atmosphere which trap and hold heat in the atmosphere. The main greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapour.

Greenwashing: The practice of misleading the public by marketing products or a firm as more environmentally friendly than it is.

Global warming: The long-term warming of the Earth’s surface due to human activities such as fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Hard-to-abate sectors: Sectors where it is difficult to lower their greenhouse gas emissions such as steel, iron, chemical and aviation. These sectors account for a significant portion of global carbon emissions and therefore require creative solutions to decrease their carbon intensity, there is often a lack of economically or technologically viable alternatives.

Just transition: A transition that is fair and inclusive as possible to everyone involved, be it by creating employment opportunities or benefitting local businesses and in essence, leaving no-one behind on the path to net zero.

Mitigation and Adaption: The avoidance and reduction of emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to prevent the earth warming to more extreme temperatures. Adaptation means altering our behaviours and systems to protect the environment we live in from the impacts of climate change.

Nature-based solutions: Ways to protect or sustainably manage ecosystems, biodiversity, and human wellbeing using nature to tackle societal and climate challenges. For example, planting trees to reduce the impact of flooding that also creates a habitat for fish and birds, therefore promoting biodiversity.

Nature-positive: Actions which increase biodiversity and the number of species in nature.

Net zero: Condition in which human-caused residual greenhouse gas emissions are balanced by human-led removals over a specified period and within specified boundaries, for example by planting and growing trees or through novel technologies like direct air capture to remove carbon.

Paris Agreement: A legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 parties at COP21 in Paris in 2015 and entered into force in 2016. The treaty calls on all nations to reduce their emissions in order to limit global warming to “well below” 2°C while seeking “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels” to combat climate change.

Real economy decarbonisation: Reduction of emissions in the real-world economy, which refers to the production, purchase and flow of goods and services within an economy.

Renewable Energy: Energy created from natural sources such as the sun and wind and replenished quicker than consumed. Renewables contrast to non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuels which are finite in their supply, with a key differentiation being the resulting emissions from their combustion.

Scope 1 emissions: Direct emissions from an organisation’s owned or controlled resources, including from fuel burned by a company in their office and/or plant.

Scope 2 emissions: Indirect emissions from the generation of power or energy purchased by an organisation.

Scope 3 emissions: Indirect emissions occurring in an organisations’ value chain, including those arising from the product of goods and services provided by the organisation.

Sustainable finance: Includes green, social, environmental, sustainability and sustainability-linked finance and includes both financing with a specific purpose and general-purpose financing.

Transition finance: Barclays' definition: Financing including lending, capital markets and other financing solutions provided to clients for activities that support greenhouse gas emission reduction, directly or indirectly, in high emitting and hard-to-abate sectors towards a 1.5-degree pathway.

1.5 degree-aligned: Aligning activity to limit average global temperature increase versus pre-industrial levels to 1.5°C. This is the Long-Term Temperature Goal of the Paris Agreement.