February 11, 2006

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Home > Glossary

Glossary

A list of Acronyms, Abbreviations and Units is also available.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Air: The air or atmosphere that surrounds the earth is one of the main components of our environment.

Area source emissions: emission sources that are spatially diffuse and/or very numerous. calculated through the gathering of information on many individual sources.

Biomass: is defined as plant materials, animal waste or any product made of either of these. This includes (but is not necessarily limited to) wood and wood products; charcoal and agricultural residues and wastes (including organic material above and below ground, both living and dead, such as trees, crops, grasses, tree litter, roots, etc.); municipal and industrial wastes (where the organic material is biological in origin); landfill gas; bio-alcohols; black liquor; sludge gas; and animal- or plant-derived oils.

Biomass fuels: when biomass is burned for energy purposes (eg. to generate heat) the biomass is referred to as a biomass fuel.

Carbon Dioxide: (CO₂) is a greenhouse gas. On the basis of available emissions information, the primary anthropogenic sources of CO₂ are fossil-fuel combustion, deforestation and industrial processes. The primary natural sources include: respiration by plants and animals, decaying organic matter and fermentation, volcanos, forest/grass fires and oceans.

Carbon dioxide equivalent: (CO₂e or CO₂ eq.) is a unit of measure used to allow the addition of or the comparison between different gases that have global warming potentials (GWPs). Since many greenhouse gases (GHGs) exist and their GWPs vary, the emissions are added in a common unit, CO₂ equivalent. To express GHG emissions in units of CO₂ equivalent, the quantity of a given GHG (expressed in units of mass) is multiplied by its GWP.

Carbon flux: transfer of carbon from one pool to another.

Carbon pools: carbon reservoirs, with the capacity to accumulate or release carbon (e.g. forest biomass, wood products, soils and the atmosphere).

Carbon sequestration: the process of increasing the carbon content of a pool other than the atmosphere.

Climate: The average weather (usually taken over a 30-year time period) for a particular region and time period. Climate is not the same as weather, but rather, it is the average pattern of weather for a particular region. Weather describes the short-term state of the atmosphere. Climatic elements include precipitation, temperature, humidity, sunshine, wind velocity, phenomena such as fog, frost, and hailstorms, and other measures of the weather.

Climate Change (UF Global Warming): Human activities are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the build-up of greenhouse gases that trap heat and reflect it back to the earth's surface. This is resulting in changes to our climate, including a rise in global temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events.

Direct emissions: refer to emissions from those sources that are actually located at the reporting facility.

Electronic data reporting (EDR): system refers to the on-line reporting system to be used by reporters to submit the required information under Phase 1 of the mandatory GHG reporting system. The site, developed and hosted by Statistics Canada, provides a secure area that protects the confidentiality of data submitted by reporters.

Emissions: the act of releasing a greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. Emissions come from sources.

Emission factors: This method uses emission factors (EF) to estimate the rate at which a pollutant is released into the atmosphere (or captured) as a result of some process activity or unit throughput. The EFs used may be average or general EFs, or technology-specific EFs.

Energy: Anything that can be efficiently converted into heat or motion to provide power to run machines and vehicles and to supply heat and light is a source of energy.

Energy consumption: Energy consumption refers to the amount of energy used by an object, system or process to carry out a particular function.

Engineering estimates: This type of method may involve estimating emissions from engineering principles and judgement, using knowledge of the chemical and physical processes involved, the design features of the source, and an understanding of the applicable physical and chemical laws.

Fugitive emissions: These are intentional or unintentional releases of gases from industrial activities. In particular, they may arise from the production, processing, transmission, storage and use of fuels and include emissions from combustion only when it does not support a primary activity (e.g. flaring of natural gases at oil and gas production facilities)

Global warming potential (GWP): is a relative measure of the warming effect that the emission of a GHG might have on the Earth's.

Greenhouse Effect: The greenhouse effect is the phenomenon whereby certain gases that absorb and trap heat in the atmosphere cause a warming effect on earth.

Greenhouse gas (GHG): a gas that absorbs infrared radiation and in turn emits it in the atmosphere. The net effect is a local trapping of energy and a tendency to warm the earth's surface. Water vapour (H₂O), carbon dioxide (CO₂) methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and ozone (O₃) are the primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.

Hydrofluorocarbons: (HFCs) are greenhouse gases. The projected growth of HFCs, perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆) could contribute several per cent to radiative forcing during the 21st century .

Industrial process emissions: These are emissions from an industrial process involving chemical reactions other than combustion, and not for the purpose of supplying energy. In instances where industrial process emissions are produced in combination with fuel combustion for energy purposes, the emissions should be categorized according to the primary purpose of the activity, energy or industrial process.

IPCC Guidelines: guidelines developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the preparation of national greenhouse gas inventories. The latest version was published in 1997.

Land Use: all arrangements, activities and inputs (sets of human actions) undertaken in a certain land cover type. The social and economic purpose for which land is managed (timber production, grazing, conservation).

Large final emitters (LFE): refers to a proposed federal government system, currently under development, to reduce annual GHG emissions by key industrial sectors, such as oil and gas, electricity production, and mining and manufacturing. The system would require mandatory GHG emissions reductions using an intensity-based approach.

Manufacturing (Industry): The industry concerned with the invention or fabrication of items or products. Manufacturing is Canada's chief economic activity, and is heavily concentrated in southern Ontario and Quebec. Major manufactures include motor vehicles, processed food, chemicals, aluminum, and iron and steel.

Mass balance: This type of method involves the application of the law of conservation of mass to a facility, process or piece of equipment. Emissions are determined from the difference in the input and output of a unit operation where the accumulation and depletion of a substance are included in the calculations

Methane: (CH₄) a greenhouse gas. Excess global methane emissions resulting from human activities, are considered to have caused an increase of about 145% in atmospheric concentrations since the mid-1700s. These are primarily the result of activities such as livestock and rice cultivation, biomass burning, natural gas delivery systems, landfills and coal mining. Emission reductions of about 8% are thought to be required to stabilize methane concentrations at current levels.

Nitrous Oxide: (N₂0) is a geenhouse gas. About one third of atmospheric nitrous oxide is of human origin, resulting primarily from the application of nitrogenous fertilizers and the combustion of fossil fuels and wood. The atmospheric concentration of nitrous oxide has grown by about 15% since the mid-1700s. While it is generally recognized that nitrous oxide emission inventory data are more limited than carbon dioxide data and highly uncertain, efforts continue to improve the estimates.

Organic matter: carbon-based material that makes up living tissues and their residues (litter, soil organic matter).

Other (as an emissions source category): includes any direct emissions that do not fall under Stationary Fuel Combustion, Industrial processes, or Fugitive Emissions. It includes emissions from on-site disposal of waste and waste or wastewater treatment; and emissions from on-site transportation that is integral to the production process.

Point source emissions: emissions from individual sources or facilities. May be measured or estimated from information assembled from individual plant or facility throughput and emission factors.

Removal: the act of removing a greenhouse gas from a pool. Removals from the atmosphere are done by sinks.

Sink: any process or mechanism which removes a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.

Stationary fuel combustion: This is when a fuel is burned in a non-vehicular combustion source for the purpose of producing energy (eg. to generate electricity, heat or steam)

Stoichiometry: a determination of equivalent weights of substances in chemical reactions; the qualitative relationship between reacting substances.

Sources: any process or mechanism which release a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. The opposite of sinks.

Temperature (Weather): In meteorological terms, temperature refers to the degree of heat or cold of the air as measured by a thermometer.

Trends (Weather): Trends identify similarities over time. For example, observations of climatic data, such as precipitation and temperature, are used to determine changes in our climate. Any general directions and tendencies in these data over the long-term are referred to as trends.

Weather and Meteorology: Meteorology is the science that studies the processes and phenomena of the atmosphere. Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a given time and place with regard to temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind, cloudiness, and precipitation. The term weather is used mostly for conditions over short periods of time.