Glossary of climate change

This glossary of climate change is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to climate change, global warming, and related topics. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change use tens of acronyms and initialisms in documents relating to climate change policy.

C

;CDM: Clean Development Mechanism is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries.
;CDR: Carbon dioxide removal
;CER: Certified Emission Reduction
;CFC: Chlorofluorocarbon
;CF₄: Carbon tetrafluoride
;CH₄: Methane
;COP: Conference of the Parties - the United Nations Climate Change Conference
;CO₂: Carbon dioxide
;C₂F₆: Hexafluoroethane

D

;DER: Distributed Energy Resources is a small-scale unit of power generation that operates locally and is connected to a larger power grid at the distribution level. DERs include solar panels, small natural gas-fueled generators, electric vehicles and controllable loads, such as HVAC systems and electric water heaters. An important distinction of a DER is that the energy it produces is often consumed close to the source.