Our Scotland, Our Future: Public Engagement Strategy for Climate and Nature

9. Glossary

Adaptation: Adaptation means taking action now to prepare communities for the effects of climate change, both those impacts we expect and those already happening.

Biodiversity: Short for biological diversity, the diversity of life in all its forms – the diversity of species, of genetic variations within one species, and of ecosystems.

Climate Change Committee: An independent, statutory body established under the Climate Change Act 2008. Our purpose is to advise the UK and devolved governments on emissions targets and to report to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change.

Climate Justice: Climate justice – climate justice is a people-centred, human rights-based approach that aims to share the benefits of equitable global development. It recognises that those who are being affected first and worst by climate change have often done little or nothing to cause the problem. Moreover, the voices of those communities – including in the Global South – are too infrequently heard.

Climate Literacy: Competence or knowledge in the area of climate change, including understanding humans’ influence on climate and climate’s impact on society

Climate Resilient/Ready: Climate resilience means being ready for climate change. It’s the ability of nature, communities, and society to prepare for, cope with, and recover from climate-related events and hazards, while adapting to long-term changes caused by climate change and the loss of nature.

Co-benefits: A positive effect that a policy or measure aimed at one objective has on another objective, thereby increasing the total benefit to society or the environment. (IPCC Glossary) Health co-benefits are benefits to health and wellbeing beyond those intended by the climate action. They are delivered through key pathways including consumption of healthy sustainable diets, promotion of sustainable transport, increase use of nature based solutions, increasing the energy efficiency of homes and reductions in air pollution from replacing fossil fuel with clean renewable energy sources.

Disinformation: Information designed or spread with full knowledge of it being false, as part of an intention to deceive and cause harm.

Ecosystems: Communities of organisms interacting with each other and with their non-living environment –forests, wetlands, mountains, lakes, rivers, deserts and agricultural landscapes.

Global Warming: The unusually fast increase in the Earth’s average surface temperature caused by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane being released into the atmosphere, known as emissions.

Habitat loss: The outcome of a process of land use change in which a ‘natural’ habitat-type is removed and replaced by another habitat-type, such as converting natural areas to production sites. In such process, species that previously used the site are displaced or destroyed. Generally this results in a reduction of biodiversity.

Just Transition: For the Scottish Government a just transition means becoming a net zero, climate resilient economy in a fair way that seeks to tackle inequality and injustice. Just transition is about both the outcome – a fairer, greener future for all – and the way we get there in partnership with those most likely to be impacted by the change.

Misinformation: The spread of false information without the intent to mislead.

Mitigation: Actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or enhance the capture of atmospheric greenhouse gases to prevent climate change. This incorporates a wide range of policies and investment across all sectors, including increasing renewable energy generation, switching to zero emission vehicles, and expanding forests.

Nature (natural environment): All living, and non-living things, and processes that occur naturally on Earth.

Nature-positive: Halting and reversing nature loss by 2030, measured from a baseline of 2020

Net zero (or net zero carbon): A situation in which any greenhouse gas emissions put into the atmosphere are balanced out by the greenhouse gases removed from the atmosphere, so that the “net” effect is zero emissions. Scotland has committed to ‘net zero’ emissions by 2045. To achieve this, we must reduce the emissions we produce to a minimum and capture any greenhouse gases we cannot avoid emitting through initiatives like tree planting.

Open Government: A commitment to ensuring government strategies and initiatives are based on the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation. When we talk about ‘opening up government’, we mean making governments and decisionmakers more accessible, more transparent, and more responsive to the citizens they serve. The Scottish Government is committed to these principles and has been a (local) member of the Open Government Partnership since 2016.

Restoration: The process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem towards or to good condition, as a means of conserving and/or enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem resilience; for habitat types listed in Annexes I and II, restoration means the process of assisting their recovery to the highest level of condition attainable

Theory of Change: Theory of Change is a comprehensive description and illustration of how and why a desired change is expected to happen in a particular context. It maps out the “missing middle” between what a program does (its activities or interventions) and how these lead to desired goals being achieved. Through this approach, the link between activities and the achievement of the long-term goals are more fully understood.

Twin Crises: The interconnected challenges of climate change and nature loss.