Climate change is the rise in global temperatures particularly from the industrial age to the present day. This warming of the planet has been caused by human activity that has put more gases such as carbon dioxide in the air, mostly due to the burning of fossil fuels for energy. 

Fossil fuels are made from decomposing plants and animals. These fuels are found by mining the Earth's crust and contain carbon and hydrogen, and this is what is burned for energy. Coal, oil, and gas are examples of fossil fuels. 

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas – this means it’s a type of gas that traps heat and then radiates it back out. So, when too much is released into the atmosphere, it makes the earth hotter. 

This situation of the planet getting warmer due to the burning of fossil fuels is now considered so extreme that many people have started using the term ‘climate crisis’ rather than climate change. 

The earth’s increasing temperature has raised water levels by melting the world’s glaciers and ice sheets. This means there is a very high probability that a huge number of people soon won’t be able to live in their current locations, because their homes will be underwater, or their environment will be simply too hot to live in. 

If a business is carbon neutral, it means whatever carbon emissions they put into the atmosphere are balanced out by what they remove from it, most commonly from carbon compensation. In simple terms, whatever 'bad' things are emitted in production, steps are taken to put an equivalent amount of 'good' things back into the environment.  

Note - a product can be carbon neutral within a range of products which aren't carbon neutral. Similarly, a section of a company's supply chain might be carbon neutral whereas as other parts of that division of labour might not.

Carbon neutrality can apply to something as small as a one-person business, or it can be assigned to large companies with a global reach. 

Net zero is often used interchangeably with carbon neutral, but there is one key difference: net zero is a measurement of total emissions, not just carbon.

So, if a business was to achieve net zero, it would balance not just its carbon output with its reductions, but also any other emissions it was responsible for, such as methane, nitrous oxide or any gases with GWP (Global warming potential).

Carbon offsetting is a process that involves a reduction in or removal of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases to compensate for emissions made elsewhere.

Carbon offsetting takes many forms. For example, a company can invest in ‘carbon credits’ which will enable them to plant a particular amount of trees which will eventually emit enough oxygen to counterbalance the GHSs used in the manufacturing of a certain product. Alternatively, businesses can invest in environmental regeneration schemes dedicated to rewilding or reforesting areas, or the construction of more renewable energy plants. 

Scopes 1, 2 and 3 are all types of emissions. Whether they are described as scope 1, 2 or 3 depends on where these emissions originate from. 

• Scope 1 emissions are emissions that a company generates while directly performing its business activities. These emissions include its onsite energy consumption, as well as transportation of products, materials and waste using vehicles owned or controlled by the company.
  
• Scope 2 emissions are emissions from purchased energy. This means that scope 2 is related to the costs of the organisations' energy use such as electricity and heat.
  
• Scope 3 emissions usually make up most of a company’s carbon footprint, and are generated as a consequence of the company’s business activities generated from sources not controlled or owned by the company. Some examples of GHGs which scope 3 covers include emissions generated in the company’s supply chain, such as:
   
  • extraction of raw materials
  • production of materials
  • transportation of materials and products.

Renewable energy, often referred to as clean energy, comes from sources or processes that can be constantly and naturally replenished.

For example, sunlight and wind create energy, but they will keep shining and blowing and don’t require any burning for their energy to be utilised, so they are ‘clean.’ 

Virgin plastic is new, unused and therefore unrecycled plastic material created from gas or crude oil. Virgin plastic is, while some argue essential for manufacturing, not a sustainable material.

CO2 is the unit by which carbon emissions are measured. Importantly, this metric does not account for any other greenhouse gases. On the other hand, CO2e is a measurement of the total greenhouse gases emitted. 

The circular economy is a production and consumption model which involves sharing, reusing, repairing and recycling existing materials and products. With this method, the life of products is extended. As a result, less waste is generated, and less fossil fuels are burnt to provide energy for new products. 

'Cradle-to-grave' is a way for a product’s full impact on the planet to be assessed. It considers how the product has had an ecological impact at every stage of its life, from making then shipping the product and the cardboard used in its packaging, right back to the energy that was used in obtaining the raw materials, all the way up to assessing how long it will take for the product to decompose if or when it’s disposed of at landfill. 

'Cradle-to-gate' is an assessment of a partial product life cycle from resource extraction (cradle) to the factory gate – essentially, before it is transported to the consumer. 

Governments have at their disposal a large range of financial and political measures to support their nations in developing more energy-efficient and ecologically friendly processes. 

These measures include introducing: 

• 'Green' taxes on high-polluting activities
• New and more stringent standards for positive environmental performance 
• Financial incentives such as tax rebates for delivering on these standards 
• Loans and grants for making green investments in energy-efficient buildings and developing electric vehicle infrastructure 
• Subsidies for research to boost sustainability innovation to maximise carbon reduction and clean energy solutions 

You can read more about the ways governments have pledged to tackle the climate crisis in this article.