The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently released a lexicon—or dictionary—of carbon finance and markets terms. This lexicon is available online at:
- Finance and Carbon Markets Lexicon and on Mongabay here
- Léxico Financiero y de Mercados de Carbonoand on Mongabay here
This lexicon will support efficient and effective communication between climate finance and REDD+ stakeholders because institutions and individuals can dialogue using vocabulary that has the same meaning for all parties. This will promote mutual understanding of vocabulary, acronyms, definitions, and vocabulary categories.
To do this, both lexicons contain a list of relevant vocabulary, definitions, reference sources, and acronyms organized around vocabulary categories as applied by in the climate finance and REDD+ sectors globally.
The categories around which the lexicon is organized provide a framework for understanding the relevance of each term to both climate finance and REDD+ sectors. The vocabulary categories are broken into two broader themes of financial vocabulary and carbon accounting vocabulary.
There are four financial vocabulary categories that are based on international finance best practices. These categories are:
- Risk management;
- Valuation;
- Regulatory and accounting; and
- Performance.
There are seven agriculture, forestry and land-use categories based on carbon accounting international best practices. These categories are:
- Afforestation, reforestation and revegetation;
- Avoided conversion of grasslands and shrublands;
- Carbon pools;
- Performance.
- General carbon accounting;
- Improved forest management;
- Peat rewetting and conservation; and
- Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation.
Each word within the relevant vocabulary category is organized alphabetically. This allows the reader to easily understand how these words are applied within the sector. Each word includes a specific definition and a general citation. Accompanying this is an index organizing all the words alphabetically providing easy reference lookup. A short acronym list is also provided. This lexicon is intended only as a guide. It is not exhaustive. Some words will certainly have multiple meanings and also may have other meanings from outside the sector.
Gabriel Thoumi, CFA, LEED AP, is a natural resource scientist and financial consultant.
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