Building language to build a market: A glossary of definitions related to market-based mechanisms for corporate GHG mitigation strategies
Why this glossary matters
As climate mitigation standards and guidance issued by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG P), Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) are updated to reflect the urgency and complexity of today’s climate challenges, clarity in language is more essential than ever. In the fast-moving world of corporate climate action, vague or inconsistent terminology can stall progress, confuse stakeholders and hinder innovation.
That’s why technical experts from Winrock International, Center for Resource Solutions, Netflix, and Verra have developed this consensus-driven glossary of GHG-related terms — to support more effective, transparent communication across companies, standards bodies and climate solution providers.
This glossary addresses:
- The lack of specificity of commonly used terms (e.g., “value chain,” which is defined in different ways across major climate standards);
- The need for new terms that reflect emerging approaches (e.g., “activity-linked instrument”); and
- The effort to replace confusing or outdated language, such as shifting from “environmental attribute certificate” to “attribute claim instrument” to reduce misunderstanding.
“Over the past several years when technical experts discuss market-based approaches and when they might be used to address Scope 1, 2, and 3, even the most knowledgeable experts have found that they are using different terminology and are not speaking the same language. The terms in this glossary can help to bring clarity to the GHG Protocol and SBTi revision processes that are ongoing, in order to help build these standards bodies and update their guidance and standards to better incentivize impactful corporate climate mitigation.”
– Brad Schallert, Director of Net Zero Services at Winrock International
“As with all accounting, it’s crucial to have clear and consistent terminology when decarbonizing one’s value chain. This glossary fills a gap in the practice of greenhouse gas accounting by establishing a common understanding of key terms related to the market-based mechanisms so essential to decarbonize the activities that make up corporate greenhouse gas inventories.”
– Emma Stewart, Ph.D., Netflix Sustainability Officer
The definitions in this document represent the views of the individual contributors but not necessarily those of the organizations.
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For more information, please contact: NetZero@Winrock.org.