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Following the green scene, particularly on the policy side of things, can quickly require an organizational or concept decoder ring. For those of us who write about or work in this sphere, everything quickly gets abbreviated and you just start remembering them all and, somewhat unfortunately, assume everyone else does knows them all too. It becomes a language all to itself.
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So here's a quick rundown of the more common ones (some of them unofficial...) you're likely to see on Planet Green and TreeHugger, and I tend to throw around, with links for more info where appropriate. For some of them I'll follow up with quickly explicatory posts later.
AOSIS -- Alliance of Small Island States
BPA -- bisphenol A
CFC -- chlorofluorocarbons
CFL -- compact fluorescent lightbulb
CO2 -- carbon dioxide (you knew that one, right?)... the 2 should be sub-script but the web doesn't play particularly well with subscripts, so most people don't use it
COP -- Congress of the Parties
EDF -- Environmental Defense Fund
FAB -- fair, ambitious, binding (what we want out of a global climate deal)
FAO -- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
GHG -- greenhouse gases (CO2, methane, chlorofluorocarbons, ozone)
IPCC -- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
kWh -- kilowatt-hour (also MWh, megawatt-hour; GWh, gigawatt-hour)
LDC -- Least Developed Countries
LED -- light-emitting diode
NRDC -- Natural Resources Defense Council
OLED -- Organic light-emitting diode
ppm -- parts per million
REDD -- Reducing Emissions for Deforestation and Forest Degradation
UNEP -- United Nations Environment Programme (pronounced 'You-Nep' by most, but I like 'You-En-Ee-Pee' as I personally dislike turning abbreviations into new words...)
UNFCCC -- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
UNFPA -- United Nations Population Fund
TNC -- The Nature Conservancy
WCS -- Wildlife Conservation Society
WWF -- World Wildlife Fund or Worldwide Fund for Nature, though WWF is also correct in itself
More: Planet Green's Green Glossary
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