Your carbon footprint measures how much carbon dioxide you put into the air just by living your normal life. It is measured in carbon units.

Clean energy is powered by natural resources like the sun, waves or the wind. We can use solar panels, hydro-electric plants or wind turbines to make electricity. It’s called clean energy because it doesn’t involve burning lots of fossil fuels so we don’t pump lots of carbon dioxide gas into the air.

Although climate change can result in temperatures going up or down, when people talk about it today they usually mean that the world is getting hotter. This rise in temperature is a result of increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the air. As temperatures rise, we get more dangerous weather like hurricanes and floods. Deserts get bigger and the ice in the north and south poles begins to melt. More people also experience floods as rainfall increases in some places, and glaciers and icecaps melt. Sadly it’s making life even more difficult for people in the world’s poorest countries.

You can use the sun's energy to make electricity by using solar panels like these ones in Nigeria

The fossil fuels we use are coal, oil and gas. We burn coal to make electricity, use oil to make petrol and use gas to heat our houses. The problem is that burning fossil fuels releases a lot of carbon dioxide into the air making the earth get warmer.

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases help the earth stay warm by trapping the suns rays. But now we are making too much of these gases. This means that more and more of the suns heat is being trapped and our world is getting hotter. This is sometimes called global warming and is causing climate change.

The greenhouse effect keeps our world warm enough for humans to live. The suns rays come through a layer of greenhouse gases that lets light through but traps the sun’s heat so we stay warm. But we're making lots of greenhouse gases so too much heat is trapped and the world is getting hotter. This is sometimes called the artificial greenhouse effect or global warming.

Chief N’Dogo Karambe is from Mali in West Africa. He used to blow into this flute at the beginning of the harvest. But now it rarely rains and his flute isn't often heard

Greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, water vapour, and halocarbons. When people talk about emissions and climate change, they usually mean the amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere.

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is an agreement between businesses, charities and governments. It helps businesses measure how much greenhouse gas they make and think about how they can make a lot less.

Energy saving devices like this cooker in Senegal can reduce your carbon footprint. Women in Senegal walk long distances to find firewood for cooking so this stove is especially useful

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement signed by more than 166 governments including Canada, China, Europe (including Ireland and the UK), India and Russia. They have all agreed to limit the amount of greenhouse gas their countries make each year. The USA and Australia have signed it, but will not ratify it. This means they are not legally obliged to do what the Kyoto Protocol says.

Offsetting is a way of trying to make up for all the carbon dioxide we pump into the air. One way to do this is to plant lots of trees. Another way of offsetting is to buy a carbon credit from a business. The business then has to cut the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.