Environment and sustainability — 2026

The environmental vocabulary of 2026 is denser and more contested than the climate vocabulary of even five years ago. Three shifts have driven this: the mainstreaming of corporate sustainability reporting (and the backlash to it), the rise of biodiversity finance alongside climate finance, and the increasingly serious discussion of geoengineering as climate goals slip out of reach. At C1, you should be able to read a Bloomberg Green, Inside Climate News, Nature Climate Change, or Mongabay piece fluently, and write competently about any of these clusters.

This lesson assumes the climate-science basics from the previous lesson (anthropogenic change, GHG, net zero, IPCC, COP, tipping points). It extends into biodiversity, the corporate sustainability vocabulary (ESG, taxonomy, greenwashing), the circular-economy lexicon, the human dimension (climate refugees, just transition), and the geoengineering debate that has moved from fringe to mainstream.

A note on register. Sustainability covers everything from rigorous IPCC analysis to corporate marketing copy. C1 fluency is the ability to recognize which register a given source is in — and to write in the appropriate register yourself.

Anthropogenic change and the climate baseline

• anthropogenic — caused by humans (anthropogenic climate change, anthropogenic emissions)
• anthropogenic forcing — the technical IPCC term for human influence on the climate
• Anthropocene — the proposed geological epoch defined by human impact
• planetary boundaries — the Rockström framework of nine global thresholds
• safe operating space — the planetary-boundaries concept of where humanity can flourish
• earth-system science — the interdisciplinary study of the planet as a coupled system
• climate model / earth system model — computational models of climate
• emission scenario / SSP (Shared Socioeconomic Pathway) — the standardized scenarios used by IPCC
• RCP (Representative Concentration Pathway) — earlier-generation scenarios; still in use
• business-as-usual — the scenario without significant policy change
• baseline year — the reference year for emissions comparisons (1990 for the UNFCCC, 2005 for some US policies)
• net warming — total warming after offsetting cooling factors

Biodiversity: the second pillar

The big shift in 2020s sustainability vocabulary: biodiversity has moved from peripheral to central, with its own scientific framework and finance vocabulary.

• biodiversity — variety of life

• biodiversity loss — the broad phenomenon

• the sixth mass extinction — the current human-caused extinction wave

• species loss — extinction

• endangered / threatened / extinct / extinct in the wild — IUCN Red List categories

• vulnerable / endangered / critically endangered — Red List threat tiers

• keystone species — species disproportionately important to ecosystem function (sea otters, wolves)

• flagship species — charismatic species used for conservation marketing (pandas, tigers)

• indicator species — species whose health reflects ecosystem health

• invasive species — non-native species causing harm

• endemic species — found only in one region

• megafauna — large animals; major losses across history

• ecosystem — community of organisms and their environment

• ecosystem services — benefits humans receive from ecosystems (pollination, water filtration, climate regulation)

• provisioning services / regulating services / cultural services / supporting services — the MEA categories

• natural capital — the stock of natural resources providing services

• TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures) — the biodiversity analog to TCFD (climate)

• GBF (Global Biodiversity Framework) — the 2022 Kunming-Montreal agreement

• 30 by 30 — the target to protect 30 percent of land and oceans by 2030

• rewilding — restoring ecosystems by reintroducing species or reducing management

• conservation vs preservation — managed use vs strict protection (a US tradition)

• protected area — formally conserved land or sea

• marine protected area (MPA) — ocean equivalent

• habitat loss / habitat fragmentation — the major drivers of biodiversity loss

• deforestation — clearing of forests

• reforestation — replanting forests

• afforestation — planting forests where none existed

• forest degradation — partial loss of forest function

A real-style sentence: The 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework, with its headline 30-by-30 target, repositioned biodiversity at the level of climate in global environmental governance; the parallel emergence of TNFD pulled major financial institutions into nature-related disclosure for the first time, on a timeline modeled on the climate-finance experience of the preceding decade.

Net zero, decarbonization, and the corporate vocabulary

• net zero — emissions balanced by removals

• gross zero / absolute zero — zero emissions without offset accounting (the harder, more credible target)

• carbon neutral — vaguer; often used loosely

• climate neutral — covers all GHGs, not just CO2

• negative emissions — net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere

• net negative — overall removing more than emitting

• decarbonization — eliminating CO2 emissions

• deep decarbonization — across the whole economy

• hard-to-abate sectors — sectors where emissions are difficult to eliminate (cement, steel, aviation, shipping)

• green premium — the extra cost of low-carbon options (Bill Gates’s framing)

• green hydrogen — hydrogen made with renewable electricity

• blue hydrogen — hydrogen from natural gas with carbon capture

• gray hydrogen — hydrogen from natural gas without capture (the dominant current production)

• CCS (carbon capture and storage)

• CCUS (carbon capture, utilization, and storage)

• direct air capture (DAC) — chemical removal of CO2 from air

• enhanced weathering — accelerated rock weathering for CO2 removal

• biochar — charcoal used for soil amendment and carbon storage

• BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage)

• CDR (carbon dioxide removal) — the umbrella term for removal technologies

• scope 1 emissions — direct emissions from owned sources

• scope 2 emissions — indirect emissions from purchased energy

• scope 3 emissions — value-chain emissions (supplier, customer, investments)

• financed emissions — emissions of activities a financial institution funds

• PCAF (Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials) — the financed-emissions standard

• SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative) — the leading corporate-target validator

• Net Zero Banking Alliance / Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) — the financial coalitions; partly fractured in 2024-2025

• transition finance — funding the move from high- to low-carbon

• green finance / sustainable finance — the broader category

• climate finance — funding for climate action, especially North-to-South flows

ESG and the sustainability-finance vocabulary

• ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) — the standard sustainability investment framework
• ESG investing / sustainable investing / responsible investing — overlapping terms
• impact investing — investing for measurable social/environmental impact, not just returns
• ESG integration — incorporating ESG factors into investment analysis
• negative screening / exclusion — refusing to invest in certain sectors (tobacco, weapons, fossil fuels)
• positive screening — preferring ESG leaders
• best-in-class — investing in the top ESG performers in each sector
• stewardship / active ownership — using shareholder influence on ESG issues
• proxy voting — voting on shareholder resolutions
• ESG rating — third-party ESG score (MSCI, Sustainalytics, ISS)
• rating divergence — the well-documented problem that ESG ratings disagree
• materiality — what matters financially
• double materiality — material both to the company and to the wider world (EU’s framework)
• disclosure / mandatory disclosure — required reporting
• TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) — the climate-disclosure framework, now folded into ISSB
• ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board) — the global disclosure standard-setter
• CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) — the EU’s comprehensive disclosure law
• EU Taxonomy — the EU classification of sustainable economic activities
• greenwashing — misleading sustainability claims
• greenhushing — companies going quiet on sustainability to avoid scrutiny
• bluewashing — analogous misleading social/UN-Global-Compact claims
• sustainability-linked bond / green bond — debt instruments tied to environmental performance or use of proceeds

The circular economy

• linear economy — take-make-dispose; the default industrial model
• circular economy — designed for reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, recycling
• the 9 Rs — refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose, recycle (the Ellen MacArthur Foundation framework)
• reuse — using again as is
• repair / right to repair — the legal movement to require repairability
• refurbish / refurbishment — restoration to working condition
• remanufacture / remanufacturing — return to original specs
• upcycle / upcycling — repurpose into something of higher value
• downcycle — recycle into something of lower value (most current recycling)
• recycling — process into raw material for new products
• closed-loop — material stays in the same product cycle
• open-loop — material flows to a different product
• product-as-a-service / PaaS — selling use rather than ownership
• extended producer responsibility (EPR) — making producers responsible for end-of-life
• deposit return scheme — refund for returning containers
• planned obsolescence — designing products to fail or become outdated
• single-use — disposable
• waste hierarchy — reduce > reuse > recycle > recover > dispose

Climate refugees, just transition, and the human dimension

• climate refugee / climate migrant — person displaced by climate impacts
• climate displacement — the broader phenomenon
• environmental migration — movement driven by environmental factors
• climate-induced migration — same
• slow-onset disasters — gradual changes (sea-level rise, desertification)
• rapid-onset disasters — sudden events (floods, storms)
• internally displaced person (IDP) — displaced within their own country
• climate justice — fair distribution of climate burdens and benefits
• environmental justice (EJ) — the broader principle, with strong US roots in pollution exposure inequities
• frontline communities — those most exposed to climate impacts
• fenceline communities — those near pollution sources
• just transition — fair transition for workers and communities affected by decarbonization
• stranded workers — workers in sunset industries
• loss and damage — compensation for climate harms (the breakthrough at COP27 and COP28)
• L&D fund — the operational fund agreed at COP28
• climate reparations — the more pointed framing
• historical emissions — cumulative responsibility for past emissions
• common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) — the UNFCCC principle of differentiated obligations

A real-style sentence: The L&D fund agreed at COP28 was a watershed for climate diplomacy not because of the initial sums pledged — which were small relative to the need — but because it formalized the principle that historical emitters bear a financial obligation to vulnerable countries, ending three decades of US resistance to anything that could be called climate reparations.

Geoengineering and the planetary-intervention debate

Moving from fringe to mainstream as 1.5C and 2C slip out of reach.

• geoengineering / climate engineering — deliberate intervention in the climate system
• solar radiation management (SRM) / solar geoengineering — reflecting sunlight
• stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) — the leading SRM proposal: injecting reflective particles into the stratosphere
• marine cloud brightening (MCB) — spraying sea salt to brighten low clouds
• cirrus cloud thinning — reducing high-altitude warming clouds
• ocean fertilization — adding nutrients to grow plankton that absorb CO2
• moratorium — formal halt to research or deployment
• governance / geoengineering governance — international rules for research and possible deployment
• termination shock — the sudden warming that would follow if SRM was deployed and then stopped abruptly
• moral hazard — the worry that geoengineering reduces incentives to cut emissions
• carbon dioxide removal (CDR) — the broader category (DAC, BECCS, enhanced weathering, ocean alkalinity enhancement, biochar)

The IPCC framework and reporting cycle

• IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
• AR6 — the Sixth Assessment Report (2021-2023)
• AR7 — the Seventh Assessment, currently underway
• Working Group I — physical science basis
• Working Group II — impacts, adaptation, vulnerability
• Working Group III — mitigation
• Summary for Policymakers (SPM) — the negotiated executive summary
• Synthesis Report — the combined volume
• Special Report — e.g., the 2018 1.5C Special Report
• confidence levels — IPCC’s calibrated language (very likely, high confidence)
• likelihood language — the standardized vocabulary (virtually certain, very likely, likely, etc.)
• carbon budget — the remaining cumulative emissions for a temperature target
• overshoot — exceeding a temperature target before coming back down
• temperature target — the 1.5C or 2C goal

AmE-specific environmental vocabulary

Collocations and high-frequency phrases

• cut / slash / reduce / curb emissions
• emit / release / generate GHGs
• capture / sequester / store / lock away carbon
• achieve / hit / miss / fall short of a net-zero target
• transition to / away from fossil fuels / coal / gas
• phase out / phase down / wind down coal
• drive / accelerate / hinder / stall the energy transition
• protect / restore / degrade an ecosystem
• lose / preserve / restore biodiversity
• breach / blow past / hit 1.5 degrees
• a livable planet / a habitable Earth
• bend the curve (on emissions)
• the window is closing / time is running out
• the science is clear / the IPCC has been unambiguous

Common Russian-speaker mistakes

1. Ecology for environment. Russian экология often translates the English environment (проблемы экологии = environmental problems). English ecology is the scientific discipline (ecology of coral reefs). Ecology of the city is bad in English sounds like the science of urban ecology has problems; the right phrasing is the environment in the city is bad or air quality is poor or pollution is high.
2. Climate used too narrowly*. Russian климат is sometimes used for atmosphere or conditions (климат в офисе). In English climate is the multi-decadal weather pattern; for office atmosphere, use atmosphere, culture, mood, environment. The climate in our office sounds like a meteorological claim.
3. Nature used for the natural world generically*. AmE nature can mean (a) the natural world (nature is healing), (b) inherent character (the nature of the problem), or (c) wildlife/outdoors (go out into nature). Russian speakers often produce sentences like we should protect nature which is acceptable but slightly translated; native speakers say protect the environment, protect ecosystems, protect wildlife, protect natural habitats. The bare nature is for poetic or general contexts.
4. Garbage vs waste. AmE garbage = household trash (take out the garbage); trash = same; waste = broader, including industrial, food, electronic. For sustainability discussions, waste is the right word: food waste, plastic waste, electronic waste (e-waste), construction waste. Garbage management policy sounds like a school-cafeteria handbook; waste management policy is the technical term.
5. Industry singular vs plural*. AmE industry as a mass noun = manufacturing/heavy industry (industry emits CO2); the X industry = a sector (the auto industry, the tech industry); industries = multiple sectors. Russian industry would mean Russian manufacturing as a whole; Russian industries would mean multiple Russian sectors. Don’t say industries when you mean the industrial sector.
6. Atomic vs nuclear. In English, nuclear is the standard adjective for fission/fusion power (nuclear plant, nuclear power, nuclear energy, nuclear waste). Atomic is older usage, surviving in atomic bomb, atomic clock, atomic number. Russian атомная электростанция is nuclear power plant in AmE, not atomic.
7. Sustainable used too loosely*. AmE sustainable has both a strict sense (environmentally sustainable, can continue indefinitely without depleting resources) and a corporate-loose sense (sustainable strategy, sustainable growth). For environmental contexts, use sustainable precisely; for устойчивый in the sense of stable, durable, prefer stable, durable, robust, lasting, resilient. A sustainable solution in a non-environmental context is vague — a durable solution, a long-term solution, a viable solution is sharper.

Summary

• Climate baseline: anthropogenic, Anthropocene, planetary boundaries, IPCC AR6/AR7, SSPs, carbon budget, overshoot.
• Biodiversity: the sixth mass extinction, IUCN Red List, keystone species, ecosystem services, TNFD, GBF, 30-by-30.
• Net zero stack: decarbonization, hard-to-abate, scope 1/2/3, financed emissions, SBTi, GFANZ.
• ESG: ESG integration, materiality, double materiality, ISSB, CSRD, EU Taxonomy, greenwashing, greenhushing.
• Circular economy: 9 Rs, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, EPR, planned obsolescence.
• Human dimension: climate refugee, just transition, frontline/fenceline, loss and damage, CBDR.
• Geoengineering: SRM vs CDR, SAI, DAC, BECCS, termination shock, moral hazard.
• Avoid: ecology for environment, climate for office mood, nature used too generically, atomic for nuclear, sustainable used too loosely.

Next theme: Health and medicine — advanced — chronic vs acute, diagnosis and prognosis, comorbidity, autoimmune disease, mental health vocabulary, preventive care, telemedicine.