Carbon Sequestration Certification Program

Glossary

Below is a list of terms commonly used when discussing greenhouse gas offsets and trading.

"Afforestation" means the planting of trees on land that were unforested prior to 1990.

"Aggregator" means an intermediary that serves as the administrative representative between offset sellers and offset buyers for the purpose of pooling or bundling carbon offsets for sale.

"Anthropogenic carbon dioxide" or "Man-Made CO2" means carbon dioxide that is formed mechanically as opposed to carbon dioxide that naturally occurs or is from natural processes such as respiration and decay. It includes, for example, carbon dioxide from power generation, manufacturing, or other similar sources.

"Baseline"means the quantity of carbon dioxide that is present in the atmosphere when business as usual is occurring. When discussing soil carbon offsets, baseline means the amount of carbon present in soil before an action is taken to sequester additional carbon (such as changing from traditional tillage to no tilllage).

"Cap-and-Trade"means the regulation that places maximum limits on the amount of greenhouse gases an emitter or business sector may emit. Cap-and-trade systems force an emitter to purchase additional emission allowances from another emitter that is not emitting its maximum allocation of gases, or to mitigate its excess emissions by buying or generating greenhouse gas offsets from a project that is reducing emissions through some activity, such as agriculture, forestry, or injection of carbon dioxide underground.

"Carbon dioxide (CO2)" means an inorganic compound containing one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. Carbon dioxide is an inert, stable, colorless, odorless, non-toxic, incombustible, inorganic gas. It is dissolvable in water and naturally present in underground locations and in the atmosphere as a trace gas. Carbon dioxide is formed during respiration and exhaled by humans and animals, and is utilized by plants during photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide can be liquefied by compression and cooling, and can be solidified into dry ice. Carbon dioxide is a gas produced when carbon is oxidized by any process. Under standard conditions, one short ton (2,000 pounds) of carbon dioxide equals 17.483 mcf (thousand cubic feet) or 0.91 metric tonnes.

"Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)" means a term used to refer to gases other than carbon dioxide that have been converted into the equivalent of carbon dioxide based on their global warming potential. As defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Global Warming Potential (GWP) is defined as the cumulative radiative forcing effects of a gas over a specified time horizon resulting from the emission of a unit mass of gas relative to a reference gas. The GWP-weighted emissions of direct greenhouse gases in the U.S. Inventory are presented in terms of equivalent emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2e), using units of teragrams of carbon dioxide equivalents (Tg CO2 Eq.).

"Carbon market" means a public, legally binding trading system for greenhouse gas offsets upon which the value of carbon dioxide and its equivalents are determined.

"Carbon offset" means the emissions reduction that occurs when a practice or project negates greenhouse gas emissions by sequestering greenhouse gases in a carbon sink. An offset may be expressed in standard cubic feet, metric tonnes, tons of CO2, or tons of CO2e.

"Carbon offset registry" means the records of offsets and offset projects maintained and made public through an online website where greenhouse gas trading projects are reported to reduce the potential for carbon offsets to be claimed more than once as an emission reduction credit.

"Carbon sequestration" means the process of increasing the amount of greenhouse gases held in soil, in plants, underground, in geologic storage, in waterbodies, or in other types of long term storage.

"Carbon sink" means a geographical area that could be developed with forestation through reforestation or afforestation, managed forests, growing agricultural crops, or any existing vegetated area or marginally producing and or abandoned oil and or gas well area or other geological formation in which carbon is or could be sequestered or injected for long-term storage

"EOR" means enhanced oil recovery or enhanced gas recovery.

"Geologic storage" means underground storage or sequestration of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas in a reservoir, including and EOR reservoir.

"Greenhouse gas" means any gas that absorbs infrared radiation in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases include, but are not limited to, water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane(CH4), nitrous oxide(N2O), chlorofluorocarbons(CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), ozone (O3), hydrofluorocarbons(HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

"Landowner" means the deed holding person or authorized lessee authorized to enter into contract for the lands or vegetation, that will provide the carbon offset.

"Oklahoma verified offset" means a carbon offset verified by the Commission pursuant to the rules of the Oklahoma Carbon Program.

"Operator" means the person permitted by the UIC agency to perform injection of carbon dioxide into a subsurface reservoir for the purpose of extracting oil or gas.

"Pooled Project" means a project created by the grouping of more than one carbon contract or project.

"Resource Management Plan (RMP)" means a detailed description of the practice, activity, or project, including the method that will sequester carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide equivalent on a specified area of land or in a specified reservoir. 

"Reserve" means a fund or qualifying carbon sink set aside to compensate for the reversal or loss of carbon sequestered by a project.

"Reversal" means the release, due to natural or human activities, of some or all of the greenhouse gas sequestered by a project.

"UIC" means the Underground Injection Control program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act.

"UIC agency" means the state governmental entity(s) having jurisdiction over UIC in Oklahoma.

"UIC permit" means the document issued by the UIC Agency authorizing the operator to engage in CO2 injection of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas into a reservoir or storage facility.

"Verification" means the determination that the sequestration of carbon dioxide or its equivalent is occurring or has occurred in accordance with a specific method or standard.

"Verifier" means a person that confirms the accuracy of information reported for the purpose of verification.