This page contains some key resources that may be useful to readers of the Law & Climate Atlas, as well as a glossary of relevant terminology. Please do not hesitate to contact us at climate@hughes.cam.ac.uk if you would like to suggest additions to either of these lists.
Further resources
General climate resources
- The IPCC Website – contains the latest authoritative evidence on climate change and humanity’s efforts to reduce emissions.
- Carbon Brief – aggregates key climate-related news and developments, and publishes explainers on key climate topics.
- Climate Action Tracker – summarises national climate policies and progress towards reaching global climate targets.
- Net Zero Tracker – tracks net zero commitments from both governments and businesses around the world.
- World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal – provides data on global climate impacts and risks.
Law and climate resources
- Climate Change Laws of the World – a comprehensive database of climate-related legislation and litigation from around the world.
- The Chancery Lane Project – an initiative that compiles climate-related contractual clauses to enable lawyers to take climate action.
- Net Zero Lawyers Alliance – a network of commercial lawyers and law firms committed to addressing climate change.
- Lawyers for Net Zero – an organisation aiming to empower the inhouse legal community to take climate action.
Glossary
| Term | Definition |
| Adaptation | Efforts taken to adjust in response to climate change impacts, in contrast to mitigation. |
| Attribution Science | A way of linking climate change to weather impacts, which is now being used to show causation in climate litigation. |
| Biodiversity Loss | The decline in the variety of different species of life, a problem with significant human impacts that is linked to, but distinct from, climate change. |
| Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism | A tariff applied on imports based on the greenhouse gas emissions caused by their production. |
| Carbon Pricing | Measures, such as carbon taxes and emissions trading systems, that put a price on greenhouse gas emissions in order to disincentivise them. |
| CCC | The Climate Change Committee, the UK’s independent advisory body on climate change established under the Climate Change Act. |
| Climate Change Act 2008 | The central piece of legislation for UK climate policy. It sets out the UK’s emissions reduction targets and a number of requirements to hold the government accountable to that target. |
| Climate Litigation | A broad term referring to cases where climate change is the central issue. |
| COP | Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Agreements on Climate Change – a yearly meeting where world leaders and negotiators reach agreements on climate change. |
| Emissions Trading | Policies where entities must retire ‘allowances’ to emit greenhouse gases, and can buy or sell allowances from other entities in the emissions trading system. |
| Environment Act 2021 | The UK’s framework piece of environmental legislation implemented post-Brexit. |
| ESG | A business’ environmental, social, and corporate governance. Often used by investors to consider the impact of their investments. |
| Green Taxonomy | A regulatory list of activities or products that can be labelled as ‘green’, ‘sustainable’, or similar, now being used in the context of sustainable investing. |
| Greenhouse Gas | Gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, that contribute to the global rise in temperatures. |
| Greenhouse Gas Removal | Methods, both natural and technical, that remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. |
| Greenwashing | When an organisation purports to have a more positive impact on the environment than it actually does. |
| IPCC | The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a UN scientific advisory body that produces authoritative reports on climate change. |
| Just Transition | A global response to climate change that improves social and economic conditions and does not exacerbate inequalities. |
| Kyoto Protocol | An international treaty under the UNFCCC signed in 1997 that committed its parties to greenhouse gas emission reductions, later succeeded by the Paris Agreement. |
| Loss and Damage | The concept that highly developed countries, which tend to be the largest historical emitters, should compensate developing countries that are often facing the worst climate impacts. |
| Mitigation | Activities taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid climate change, in contrast to adaptation. |
| Natural Capital | A term to describe natural assets and the value that they bring to humanity. |
| NDC | Nationally Determined Contribution – each signatory to the Paris Agreement’s commitment to reduce their emissions. |
| Net Zero | When the total volume of greenhouse gas emissions is equivalent to the volume of greenhouse gases being sequestered from the atmosphere. |
| Paris Agreement | A 2015 agreement under the UNFCCC which compels parties must communicate their NDCs and establishes mechanisms to help with climate cooperation. |
| Physical Risks | Risks posed by the physical impacts of climate change (e.g. rising temperatures and extreme weather events). |
| Sustainable Development | A goal relevant to international climate action, traditionally defined as meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations. |
| TCFD | The Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, which sets disclosure and reporting rules for organisations that are now becoming mandatory in some jurisdictions. |
| Transition Risks | Risks posed by society’s response to climate change, for example market changes and policy mechanisms. |
| UNFCCC | The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. |
Slingshot