Words and phrases

Words and phrases about the process

Citizens' assembly - A series of events during which people learn about an issue and make recommendations on how to deal with it.

Sortition - Randomly selecting a group of people who are representative of the local population. This is how the South Yorkshire Citizens' Assembly was selected. 

Facilitator - A person who helps a group of people to work together. They help people have better discussions. They do not give their views in the conversation. Facilitators will take notes to make sure they are capturing your ideas, and will sometimes share highlights from discussions to the wider group.

Lead Facilitator - The person who leads the citizens’ assembly. They will explain what to do during the assembly, keep time, and make sure people get their questions answered.

Breakout group - used to split a large group into smaller groups to have conversations. This is where most of the discussion will take place in the Citizens' Assembly.

Recommendation - Advice telling someone what the best thing to do is. An assembly often writes down their recommendations in a report to share them.

Words and phrases about the climate emergency

Climate Change is a complicated issue, and sometimes it’s difficult to avoid using jargon, so here is a list of some words you may hear. We will always try to define them when we meet, but you can come back to this list throughout the entire Assembly. Remember that you don’t need to know anything about the climate emergency to take part.

Adaptation - Ideas that help us deal with the effects of climate change. An example of this is building walls to stop floods if sea levels rise.

Atmosphere - The layer of air or other gases around our planet. 

Cap and trade - Where countries can buy or sell the amount of greenhouse gases they are allowed to release with other countries.

Carbon capture and storage - Collecting big amounts of carbon dioxide gas and keeping it from escaping into the atmosphere. This is done naturally with forests or industrially by storing the gas in concrete for example. 

Carbon dioxide (CO2) - Carbon dioxide is a gas in the Earth's atmosphere. It is produced naturally and also by human activities like burning coal and gas. This gas traps heat from the Earth and warms the surface leading to climate change.

Carbon footprint - The amount of carbon dioxide created by an individual or organisation.

Carbon neutral - When the amount of carbon dioxide that a person or organisation emits is less than what they remove from the atmosphere. Companies for example can try to become carbon neutral by switching to wind powered electricity or offsetting their emissions. 

Carbon offsetting - Funding or taking part in activities that lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. For example, people can donate money to plant forests or give people efficient cooking stoves that emit less carbon.

Carbon sequestration - Taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in the ground. Trees and plants collect and store carbon in the soil.

Circular economy - An economy that is designed to stop waste and use less resources.

Climate change - Changes in the earth’s climate, especially the rise in global temperature caused by carbon dioxide and other gases. This causes sea levels to rise, and extreme weather events like changes in temperature, storms, floods, or absence of rain. The change in climate can make people lose their homes and businesses. It also affects plants, animals and insects, which makes it difficult to produce food. 

Climate emergency - When urgent action must happen to stop carbon emissions from doing serious damage to the environment.

Deforestation - The cutting down of forests that can lead to a high level of carbon dioxide emissions.

Fossil fuels - Natural resources, such as coal, oil and natural gas, which produce carbon dioxide when they are burnt.

Global average temperature - The average temperature on earth over a year. This year, the global average temperature was 1.15°C above the 12.3°C average of the 20th century. Scientists and governments agree that the global average temperature should remain less than 2°C above the 12.3°C average.

Global warming - The rise in global average temperature in recent decades. Experts believe this is mainly caused by man-made carbon dioxide emissions. 

Greenhouse gases - Natural and industrial gases that trap heat from the Earth and warm the surface. 

Methane - Methane is a strong greenhouse gas. It comes from the natural world (wetlands, termites, wildfires) and human activity (farming, waste dumps, leaks from coal mining). It traps the heat from the Earth and warms the surface. Methane has about 30 times more impact than carbon dioxide.

Mitigation - Action that will reduce man-made climate change. This includes action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. This can be done by using renewable energy instead of fossil fuels or protecting forests from being cut down.

Renewable energy - Renewable energy is energy created from sources that can be restored in a short period of time. This can be from wood, water, heat from the earth, wind, and the sun.

Tipping point - When the effects of climate change cannot be stopped and undone.