First up: what’s COP31?
In simple terms, it’s an annually held event by the United Nations to discuss climate change and how countries intend to fix it.
Below are some of the buzzwords and corporate jargon you might hear being thrown around in conversations in or around COP31, explained.
Phrase: ’35 by 35’
Meaning: This is a corporate slang term for the electrification target being promoted this year, which is 35% global final energy consumption met by electricity, by 2035.
Phrase: El Niño
Meaning: It’s a natural climate pattern which disrupts jet streams and global weather, causing flooding and drought in unusual places.
Phrase: Climate shocks
Meaning: An unexpected and sudden change from normal weather, made worse by climate change. These typically have high (and negative) impacts on the community they hit – such as a tropical cyclone.
Phrase: Electrification
Meaning: As according to the Cambridge dictionary, it is ‘the process of making a machine or system operate using electricity when it did not before’
Phrase: Climate overshoot
Meaning: This is referring to the scenario in which global temperatures exceed the 1.5 degree Celsius limit, which is the Paris Agreement’s ‘ceiling’ for limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
If you have heard any words or phrases you don’t understand and Google isn’t cutting it, message us on LinkedIn or X to be included in a second round of COP31 buzzwords.
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