Glossary | Climate

The following glossary provides definitions for terms frequently used in climate change-related discussions. Not all terms are used on this website.

adaptation: An adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities. Various types of adaptation can be distinguished, including anticipatory, autonomous, and planned adaptation.
administrative actions: Administrative actions are procedures established by officials of federal, state, and local governments. They impact employees and workers who are working with the agency that is responsible for the regulations.
anthropogenic: Resulting from or produced by human beings.
carbon capture and storage (CCS): CCS refers to a collection of technologies that can combat climate change by reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The idea behind CCS is to capture the CO2 generated by burning fossil fuels or from certain industrial or manufacturing processes that directly emit carbon dioxide, before it is released to the atmosphere.
carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS): Also referred to as carbon capture, utilization and sequestration, this is a process that captures carbon dioxide emissions from sources like cement manufacturing or ethanol plants and either reuses or stores it so it will not enter the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide storage in geologic formations includes oil and gas reservoirs, unmineable coal seams and deep saline reservoirs — structures that have stored crude oil, natural gas, brine and carbon dioxide over millions of years.
carbon footprint: Carbon footprint measures the amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds emitted due to the consumption of fossil fuels by a particular person, group, etc. during a period of time.
carbon-free electricity (CFE): Carbon-free electricity means electrical energy produced from resources that generate no carbon emissions or pollution.
carbon dioxide removal: This is the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
carbon dioxide removal technologies (CDR): CDR encompasses a wide array of approaches, including direct air capture (DAC) coupled to durable storage, soil carbon sequestration, biomass carbon removal and storage, enhanced mineralization, ocean-based CDR, and afforestation/reforestation.
carbon management: Carbon management includes methods to help mitigate carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is warming the planet, causing climate change. Human activities have raised the atmosphere's carbon dioxide content by 50 percent in less than 200 years. Carbon management includes carbon dioxide removal, carbon capture, carbon sequestration or storage, or carbon utilization
circular economy: Circular economy is an economic system based on the reuse and regeneration of materials or products, especially as a means of continuing production in a sustainable or environmentally friendly way.
Class VI well primacy: The Colorado legislature has given the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) the authority to pursue Class VI well primacy from the EPA. As part of this process, the Environmental Protection Agency requires Colorado standards to be just as stringent. According to state statute, a Class VI permit will be denied if it will have a net negative impact on a disproportionately impacted community.
clean energy: Clean energy, or renewable energy, refers to solar, onshore and offshore wind, geothermal, and wave and tidal energy projects that are produced from sources such as the sun and wind that are naturally replenished and do not run out.
cleantech: Cleantech is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities.
climate: Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as the average weather, or more rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period of time ranging from months to thousands or millions of years. The classical period for averaging these variables is 30 years, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization. The relevant quantities are most often surface variables such as temperature, precipitation and wind. Climate in a wider sense is the state, including a statistical description, of the climate system.
climate change: Climate change refers to changes in global or regional climate patterns attributed largely to human-caused increased levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases.
climate change adaptation: Climate change adaptation or climate adaptation means taking action to prepare for and adjust to both the current and projected impacts of climate change.
climate divisions: The five NOAA National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) official climate divisions group Colorado climate data into regions by river basins, but these divisions are not necessarily representative of the complex regional climates in the state. A new set of climate divisions has been developed (Wolter and Allured 2007). These new divisions are based on groups of observing stations that vary in a similar manner for year to year, and are thought to reflect similar regional climate processes.
climate equity: This is the goal of recognizing and addressing the unequal burdens made worse by climate change, while ensuring that all people share the benefits of climate protection efforts
Colorado Energy Office (CEO): The mission of CEO is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and consumer energy costs by advancing clean energy, energy efficiency and zero emission vehicles to benefit all Coloradans. The vision is for a prosperous, clean energy future for Colorado, and it focuses on equity, diversity, and inclusion at its core.
community input: Climate work in Colorado is consistently informed by seeking the state's community and stakeholder engagement and developing specific plans to engage a broad range of community members and stakeholders.
cryosphere: The component of the climate system consisting of all snow, ice and frozen ground (including permafrost) on and beneath the surface of the Earth and ocean.
direct air capture (DAC): Technologies extract CO2 directly from the atmosphere at any location, unlike carbon capture, which is generally carried out at the point of emissions, such as a steel plant. The CO2 can be permanently stored in deep geological formations or used for a variety of applications.
direct air capture – memorandum of understanding (DAC Hub MOI): In 2023, Colorado and Wyoming signed a memorandum of understanding to establish an interstate effort to support a DAC industry in our states. This regional approach could lay the groundwork to scale DAC solutions across the U.S.
disproportionately impacted communities: Disproportionately impacted communities hold a significant representation of communities of color, low-income communities, or tribal and indigenous communities that experience or are at risk of experiencing higher or more adverse human health or environmental effects.
drought: Drought can be defined in a number of ways. In general terms, drought is a prolonged absence or marked deficiency of precipitation, a deficiency that results in water shortage for some activity or for some group, or a period of abnormally dry weather sufficiently prolonged for the lack of precipitation to cause a serious hydrological imbalance. Agricultural drought relates to moisture deficits in the topmost 1 meter or so of soil (the root zone) that affect crops, meteorological drought is mainly a prolonged deficit of precipitation, and hydrologic drought is related to below-normal streamflow, lake, and groundwater levels. A megadrought is a long-drawn out and pervasive drought, lasting much longer than normal, usually a decade or more.
drought management planning: This Includes drought mitigation and drought response planning. The main objective of drought management planning is to preserve essential public services and minimize the adverse effects of a water supply emergency on public health and safety, economic activity, environmental resources, and individual lifestyles.
drought stages: These are the severity levels of drought generally differentiated by pre-defined trigger points or thresholds.
e-bike: E-bike is a type of bicycle ridden by pushing the pedals with feet and/or by using a small electric motor.
electrification goals: Electrification goals focus on replacing technologies or processes that use fossil fuels, such as internal combustion engines and gas boilers, with electrically-powered equivalents, such as electric vehicles or heat pumps. These replacements are typically more efficient, reducing energy demand, and have a growing impact on emissions as electricity generation is decarbonized.
emissions scenarios: A plausible representation of the future development of emissions of substances that are potentially radiatively active (e.g., greenhouse gases, aerosols), based on a coherent and internally consistent set of assumptions about driving forces (such as demographic and socioeconomic development, technological change) and their key relationships.
environmental justice (EJ): Environmental justice recognizes that all people have a right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, participate freely in decisions that affect their environment, live free of dangerous levels of toxic pollution, experience equal protection of environmental policies, and share the benefits of a prosperous and vibrant pollution-free economy. Colorado is focused on engaging local communities and key community leaders to have all voices heard to effectively engage Colorado communities.
extreme weather event: An event that is rare at a particular place and time of year, typically as rare as or rarer than the 10th or 90th percentile of the observed probability density function. By definition, the characteristics of what is called extreme weather may vary from place to place. Single extreme events cannot be simply and directly attributed to anthropogenic climate change, as there is always a finite chance the event in question might have occurred naturally. When a pattern of extreme weather persists for some time, such as a season, it may be classed as an extreme climate event, especially if it yields an average or total that is itself extreme (e.g., drought or heavy rainfall over a season).
forcing: The climate system can be driven or “forced” by factors within and external to the system. Processes within the system include those related to the atmosphere, the cryosphere, the hydrosphere, the land surface, and the biosphyere. Volcanic eruptions, solar variations, and anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere and land use change are external forcings.
geothermal heat: Geothermal heat is an energy source that comes from the earth in the natural rock deep in the ground.
green hydrogen: Green hydrogen is a low-carbon energy carrier, for example when energy used to power electrolysis comes from hydrogen using renewable sources such as wind, water, or solar.
greenhouse gases or greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs): GHGs are any of the gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect by trapping heat in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide. To avoid the worsening effects of climate change, Colorado, like the rest of the world, must reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are a significant driver of climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions also negatively impact air quality. Reducing emissions benefits human health, agriculture, well-being, medical expenses, labor, and the economy.
greenhouse effect: Greenhouse gases effectively absorb thermal infrared radiation, emitted by the Earth’s surface, by the atmosphere itself due to the same gases, and by clouds. Atmospheric radiation is emitted to all sides, including downward to the Earth’s surface. Thus, greenhouse gases trap heat within the surface-troposphere system. This is called the greenhouse effect.
hydroclimatic variables: Physical parameters relevant to both hydrology and climate, including temperatures, precipitation, and snowpack.
hydrologic drought: Hydrologic drought is related to below-normal streamflow, lake, and groundwater levels.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): IPCC was established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to provide an assessment of the state of knowledge on climate change based on peer-reviewed and published scientific/technical literature in regular time intervals.
interstate compacts: Interstate waters are allocated under agreements between two or more states that govern specific interactions among those states, and require consent by the United States Congress. These compacts are intended to allow each state to exercise its own water law and to use its allocated water within its boundaries.
microgrids: Microgrids are small-scale power systems that generate and distribute electricity locally. While they can connect to a larger grid system, microgrids are designed to function independently, which lowers the risk of power outages in other parts of the larger system from interruptions. When microgrids are grid-connected, they can help supply clean electricity to the larger system to meet demand across the utility’s region.
mitigation: Mitigation is the action of reducing the severity, seriousness, or painfulness of something.
natural carbon storage: Natural carbon storage, or carbon sequestration, is the long-term storage of carbon in plants, soils, geologic formations, and the ocean.
net-zero GHG emissions target: Net-zero GHG emissions target refers to a 2023 law signed by Colorado Governor Jared Polis that commits the state to reducing greenhouse gas emissions 100% from 2005 levels by 2050, along with the addition of interim goals for greenhouse gas reductions to ensure success. Colorado now joins a growing list of U.S. states committed to net-zero emissions, and was one of at least eight states that considered emission reduction targets in 2023.
Pueblo Hub: Colorado School of Mines and Carbon America received $32.6 million from the CarbonSAFE program for the development of a potential carbon storage hub in Pueblo, and CEO supports this process.
regional climate models: These models typically input the global model grids surrounding their geographical domain and then simulate wind, temperature, clouds, evapotranspiration, and other variables on a much finer grid.
renewable energy: Renewable energy is energy that is replaced naturally or controlled carefully so it can be used without the risk of using it all up.
renewable energy storage capacity: Renewable energy storage capacity is the ability to store renewable energy for future use.
risk: Risk is a combination of hazard, vulnerability, and exposure. Risk assesses the impact a hazard would have on people, services, facilities, and structures in a community and refers to the likelihood of a hazard event resulting in an adverse condition that causes injury or damage. Vulnerability As defined by FEMA’s risk assessment guidance (FEMA 386-2),
Roadmap: Roadmap for Colorado is based on science-based research that demonstrates the potential for carbon management technology in Colorado and be prioritized by hearing from and listening to local communities to ensure Coloradans’ concerns, feedback and ideas are a key part of this conversation. The Roadmap is mandated by the State Legislature to pursue a smart carbon management market to guide the strategic development and implementation of carbon management technology in the state. The roadmap will build on the findings of the CCUS Task Force, which convened to outline the state policies, regulations, and incentives needed to support CCUS in Colorado. also speaks to Colorado's approach to climate technology — we want to do proper research and stakeholder engagement before making huge commitments. We need to understand the landscape, potential benefits and impacts so we can strategically develop policies and resources. This Roadmap will help us do that.
streamflow: Water flow within a river channel, for example expressed in m3/s. Also a synonym for river discharge.
time series analysis: Time series analysis, including trend analysis, uses statistical methods to analyze records from a period of time.
threat multiplier: A threat multiplier is a condition that creates additional vulnerability to hazards, creating an even larger risk. Climate change is the significant threat multiplier that exacerbates existing situations and results in more socioeconomic problems, political tension, and conflict.
transportation electrification: Transportation electrification involves transitioning personal cars, commercial fleets of cars and trucks, and public transit from fossil-fueled to powered by electricity.
urban heat island effect: The relative warmth of a city compared with surrounding rural areas, associated with changes in runoff, the concrete jungle effects on heat retention, changes in surface albedo, changes in pollution and aerosols, and so on.
variability: Climate variability refers to 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. Variability may be due to natural internal processes within the climate system (internal variability), or to variations in natural or anthropogenic or external forcing (external variability).
vulnerability: Being open to damage or attack, vulnerability is also defined as the likelihood that an area or sector will be negatively affected by environmental hazards.
water year: The 12-month period from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 and designated by the calendar year in which it ends, for example the water year 2023 ended on Sept. 30, 2023.
wind energy: Electrical energy obtained from harnessing the wind with windmills or wind turbines.
zero emission buildings (ZEB): Buildings that emit zero carbon and other air pollutants.
zero emission vehicles (ZEV): Vehicles that emit zero carbon and other air pollutants.