Glossary

GEF
Global Environment Facility. This was established in 1991 to provide grants to help developing countries fund projects and programs that protect the global environment.

GHGs
Greenhouse Gases. These are one of the main causes of climate change. The six harmful GHGs listed by the Kyoto Protocol are carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), HFC gases, PFC gases and SF₆ gases.

IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This was established to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.

Kyoto Protocol
In early December 1997, more than 160 nations met in Kyoto, Japan, to negotiate binding limitations on greenhouse gases for the developed nations. The outcome was the Kyoto Protocol, in which the developed nations agreed to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, relative to the levels emitted in 1990.

NAPAs
National Adaptation Programmes of Action. These are documents specifying a list of priority activities that will communicate the urgent needs of Less Developed Countries, considering their high vulnerability and low adaptive capacity to climate change.

UNFCCC
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Many countries joined this international treaty over a decade ago to consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with inevitable temperature increases.

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