The Hindu Editorial (Keeping it relevant) – Dec 15, 2023

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The Hindu Editorial (Keeping it relevant) – Dec 15, 2023:

Conference of the Parties (COP) (noun) – The Conference of Parties (COP) is the apex decision-making body of the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC was formed in 1994 to stabilize the greenhouse gas emissions and to protect the earth from the threat of climate change. COP members have been meeting every year since the year 1995. As of 2022, the number of member countries in the UNFCCC has reached 198. The first conference (COP1) was held in 1995 in Berlin. The 28th session (COP28) was held in 2023 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
climate science (noun) – it is the effort by humans to understand the natural forces that control the climate. A planet’s climate is driven by the energy of the Sun falling on the planet’s surface, which varies widely depending on latitude and the season. Climate is ultimately determined by the complex interplay between that energy and the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and land masses.
equity (noun) – fairness, justness, neutrality, lack of bias, impartiality.
undergo (verb) – go through, experience, be subjected to, come in for, receive, undertake.
character (noun) – nature, qualities, attributes, traits, essential quality, identity.
stuffy (adjective) – conventional & narrow-minded; conservative, old-fashioned, uninteresting, boring.
people (verb) – fill, be present in.
bureaucrat (noun) – officer, official, office-holder, functionary, mandarin.
technocrat (noun) – a supporter of technocracy; a person who is with both political power as well as technical knowledge.
technocracy (noun) – the government by a group of people with both political power as well as technical knowledge.
morph (verb) – change, transform, alter, modify gradually.
carnival (noun) – a public event, festival.
officialdom (noun) – officials, authorities, the people in charge, the government, the administration, the establishment, the bureaucracy, the system.
of course (phrase) – certainly, definitely, absolutely; obviously, clearly.
UN climate secretariat (noun) – The UNFCCC secretariat (UN Climate Change) is the United Nations entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change. UNFCCC stands for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
bursting at the seams (phrase) – (of a place) crowded, filled, packed, crammed, thronged, overflowing, choked, jammed, congested.
reams (noun) – a large quantity of something.
subsidiary (adjective) – secondary, subordinate, supplementary, additional.
body (noun) – group, association, organization, federation.
Working Group (noun) – a group of experts working together to achieve specified goals.
intricately (adjective) – complicatedly, perplexingly, challengingly.
convolute (verb) – complicate, confuse, make complex, make intricate.
accompany (verb) – occur with, coexist with, go with.
burgeoning (adjective) – just beginning, emerging, rising, advancing.
burgeon (verb) – grow rapidly, expand, escalate, multiply; develop, prosper, thrive, flourish.
activist (noun) – a person who supports a political change or cause; (or societal change/cause).
indigenous (adjective) – relating to a member of the original group of people living in a place; native, original, aboriginal, ancient, primeval.
on the one hand (phrase) – it is used to introduce the first of two contrasting different, points, facts, or ways of looking at something. It is always followed later by “on the other hand” or ‘on the other’.
fair (adjective) – good, proper.
welcome (adjective) – pleasing, agreeable, heartening, promising, much needed.
development (noun) – progress, progression, advancement, improvement, growth.
growing (adjective) – increasing.
anthropogenic (adjective) – human-caused, human-influenced, human-induced, man made, artificial.
climate change (noun) – a long-term change in the Earth’s climate, or of a region on Earth (Courtesy: NASA).
amplify (verb) – increase, raise, intensify, heighten, escalate.
industrialisation (noun) – the extensive development of industries in a region, country, culture, etc.
pose (verb) – constitute, present, create, cause (a problem or danger or risk).
existential (adjective) – relating to existence.
humanity (noun) – humankind, the human race, human beings, humans, people.
denialist (adjective) – a person who refuses to accept something that is considered as a well-known fact.
vociferous (adjective) – outspoken, forthright; relating to someone who expresses his/her views frankly.
the corridors of power (noun phrase) power corridor; the top or senior level of government/administration
decade (noun) – a period of ten years.
relegate (verb) – downgrade, lower, assign a less important position to.
obscurity (noun) – uncertainty, mysteriousness, unclearness, ambiguity, murkiness.
darknet (noun) – restricted computer networks (which exchange information using means (ways) such as peer-to-peer file sharing).
Flat Earther (noun) – A person who has the perception that Earth exists as a flat disk, either circular or square-shaped.
ranks (noun) – the people belonging to a group.
parvenus (noun) – relating to a person born and raised in poverty who has suddenly become rich or powerful.
pivoting (adjective) – completely changing the way in which one does something (e.g. business).
merchant (noun) – trader, salesperson, vendor.
fossil fuel (noun) – non renewable resources (or fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas are formed from the buried/deposited organic materials).
era (noun) – time, period, epoch.
messianic (adjective) – relating to any popular leader promising to make major changes in a rigorously determined and enthusiastic way; passionate, fervent, zealous, emotional, enthusiastic.
espousal (noun) – adoption, acceptance, embracing, taking up.
renewable energy (noun) – green/clean energy; energy generated from natural resources (such as water, wind & solar energy).
affirm (verb) – declare publicly; state, pronounce, promise, avow.
assessment (noun) – evaluation, appraisal.
greenhouse gas (GHGs) (noun) – heat-trapping gas; a gas (such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, etc.) in the atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation, causing the greenhouse effect and warming of Earth’s temperature. (Courtesy: VOA Learning English).
(carbon) emissions (noun) – Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; Carbon dioxide is also a greenhouse gas produced as a byproduct of human activities. Burning fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—is the number one source of global CO2 emissions.
drastically (adverb) – substantially.
cap (noun) – limit, upper limit, ceiling.
acknowledge (verb) – accept, recognize, realize.
lay out (phrasal verb) – outline, detail, work out, draw up, formulate.
Dubai Consensus (noun) – The COP28 climate talks in Dubai have concluded with a new deal known as the UAE or Dubai Consensus. COP28 has concluded with a final consensus that lays out an ambitious response to the Global Stocktake and puts forward a plan to close the gaps to 2030. It calls on Parties to transition away from fossil fuels to reach net zero, encourages them to submit economy-wide Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), includes a new specific target to triple renewables and double energy efficiency by 2030, and builds momentum behind a new architecture for climate finance.
expediency (noun) – convenience, advantage, advantageousness, usefulness, utility, benefit.
strategic (adjective) – relating to achieving long-term or overall goals.
second-guessing (noun) – an act of predicting what will happen in the future.
weaponise (verb) – use as a weapon.
carbon point/footprint (noun) – a carbon footprint is a measure of the impact your activities have on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced through the burning of fossil fuels and is expressed as a weight of CO2 emissions produced in tonnes.
rein in (phrasal verb) – to control, restrain, restrict, limit someone/something.
loathe (verb) – hate, detest, dislike greatly.
reparation (noun) – redress, restitution, comeback, atonement, amends, remedy.
devastation (noun) – disaster, catastrophe, calamity, crisis, tragedy.
wreak (verb) – cause, inflict, bring about (danger).
Loss and Damage (L&D) Fund (noun) – At the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP 19) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Warsaw, Poland, in 2013, representatives of member countries formally agreed to establish the Loss and Damage (L&D) fund. It was being created to provide financial and technical assistance to economically developing nations that were incurring Loss and Damage (L&D) due to climate change.
commitment (noun) – responsibility, onus, liability, accountability, obligation, engagement.
COP-28 (noun) – The 28th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 28) to the UNFCC convened from 30 November to 12 December 2023. It has taken place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
compensation (noun) – payment, repayment, settlement (for loss/damage).
deem (verb) – consider, regard as, see, view.
phase out (phrasal verb) – eliminate, remove, discontinue (something in gradual stages).
phase down (noun) – a slowing down by phases; a gradual reduction.
phase down (phrasal verb) – to reduce by gradual stages.
transition (noun) – change, transformation.
banal (adjective) – common, ordinary, boring, clichéd, hackneyed.
channel (verb) – transmit, pass through, conduct, direct, guide.
de-addiction (noun) – the process of ridding the individual of his dependence on certain substances or activities.
multilateral (adjective) – involving many different countries.