News | The Conversation | October 2021

A quick guide to climate change jargon – what experts mean by mitigation, carbon neutral and 6 other key terms

When scientists and policy writers talk about climate change, a lot of technical terms get tossed around: adaptation, carbon neutral, sustainable development. The language can feel overwhelming.

“It sounds like you’re talking over people,” one person said of the terminology during a recent study colleagues and I conducted through the USC Dornsife Public Exchange.