Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is a partnership between the public sector and the private sector for the purpose of delivering a project or a service traditionally provided by the public sector.
Public transportation
Public transport is a system that moves people from one area to another in an efficient, affordable manner.
Pollution prevention
Pollution prevention is a strategy for reducing the amount of waste created and released into the environment, particularly by industrial facilities, agriculture, or consumers.
Plastic pollution
Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat.
Photovoltaic (PV) panels
Photovoltaics is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry.
Permaculture
Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems.
Passive solar design
passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer.
Passive House
Passive House is a building design and construction standard that aims to create highly energy-efficient and comfortable buildings with minimal energy consumption
Passive cooling
Passive cooling refers to techniques and strategies used to cool indoor spaces without relying on mechanical or electrical systems, such as air conditioners.
Paris Agreement
Paris Agreement is an international treaty adopted in December 2015 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Parts per million
A unit of measurement that can be used to describe the concentration of a particular substance within air, water, soil, or some other medium. For example, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is almost 400 parts per million, which means 1 million liters of air would contain about 400 liters of carbon dioxide.
Product life cycle
Product life cycle: The many steps that go into creating, using, and disposing of a product. A product life cycle typically starts by removing raw materials from the Earth (for example, cutting down trees, mining metals, or pumping oil). These raw materials are then transported, processed, and manufactured into usable products. Next, the product is packaged and transported to a place where people can buy it. The final steps occur when people use up, throw away, or recycle the product.
Precipitation
Precipitation: Rain, hail, mist, sleet, snow, or any other moisture that falls to the Earth.
Positive feedback loop
Positive feedback loop: A process in which one change leads to another, which then causes even more of the original change. In climate change, a positive feedback loop occurs when warming causes changes that lead to even more warming. For example, as the Earth gets warmer, the amount of ice that covers the Arctic Ocean is shrinking, which leaves more open water. Ice reflects a lot of sunlight back into space, while the open ocean is dark and absorbs more of the sun’s energy, making the Earth warmer. Thus, melting ice causes the Earth to absorb more energy from the sun and become even warmer.
Plate tectonics
Plate tectonics: A scientific theory that describes how large sections of the Earth’s crust called plates move over time. The Earth has seven or eight major plates, including the North American plate, plus many smaller plates. As these plates collide, spread apart, or grind alongside one another, they cause earthquakes and volcanic activity.
Photovoltaic cell
Photovoltaic cell: A device that converts energy from sunlight into electricity. Photovoltaic cells use a material such as silicon, which is called a semi-conductor.
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis: The process by which green plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make food and other substances that they use to grow. In the process, plants release oxygen into the air.
Permafrost
Permafrost: Soil or rock that is frozen year-round. Permafrost can be found in many parts of Alaska, northern Canada, and other countries near the Arctic Ocean. Even though the soil at the surface of the Earth may not be frozen during the warmer months, a layer of permafrost may exist several feet below.
Passive solar heating
Passive solar heating: The use of windows, building materials, and other features to take advantage of sunlight to heat the inside of a building.
Pyrogenic
Pyrogenic – produced under conditions involving intense heat.