Section 3Sec./Art. 3

Definition of Terms. For purposes of this Act, the following shall have the corresponding meanings:

(a) Adaptation refers to the adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities.

(b) Adaptive capacity refers to the ability of ecological, social or economic systems to adjust to climate change including climate variability and extremes, to moderate or offset potential damages and to take advantage of associated opportunities with changes in climate or to cope with the consequences thereof.

(c) Anthropogenic causes refer to causes resulting from human activities or produced by human beings.

(d) Climate Change refers to a change in climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period typically decades or longer, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity.

(e) Climate Variability refers to the variations in the average state and in other statistics of the climate on all temporal and spatial scales beyond that of individual weather events.

(f) Climate Risk refers to the product of climate and related hazards working over the vulnerability of human and natural ecosystems.

(g) Disaster refers to a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.

(h) Disaster risk reduction refers to the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts to analyze and manage the causal factors of disasters, including through reduced exposure to hazards, lessened vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the environment, and improved preparedness for adverse events.

(i) Gender mainstreaming refers to the strategy for making womens as well as mens concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and programs in all political, economic, and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. It is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies, or programs in all areas and at all levels.

(j) Global Warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earths near-surface air and oceans that is associated with the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

(k) Greenhouse effect refers to the process by which the absorption of infrared radiation by the atmosphere warms the Earth.

(l) Greenhouse gases (GHG) refers to constituents of the atmosphere that contribute to the greenhouse effect including, but not limited to, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.

(m) Mainstreaming refers to the integration of policies and measures that address climate change into development planning and sectoral decision-making.

(n) Mitigation in the context of climate change, refers to human intervention to address anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of all GHG, including ozone- depleting substances and their substitutes.

(o) Mitigation potential shall refer to the scale of GHG reductions that could be made, relative to emission baselines, for a given level of carbon price (expressed in cost per unit of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions avoided or reduced).

(p) Sea level rise refers to an increase in sea level which may be influenced by factors like global warming through expansion of sea water as the oceans warm and melting of ice over land and local factors such as land subsidence.

(q) Vulnerability refers to the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes. Vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude, and rate of climate change and variation to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity.