biodiversity — the variability among living organisms arising from all sources including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part and includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems (15)

circular economy — an economic system whereby the value of products, materials and other resources in the economy is maintained for as long as possible, enhancing their efficient use in production and consumption, thereby reducing the environmental impact of their use, minimising waste and the release of hazardous substances at all stages of their life cycle, including through the application of the waste hierarchy (9)

climate change adaptation — the process of adjustment to actual and expected climate change and its impacts (6)

climate change mitigation — the process of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1,5 °C above pre-industrial levels, as laid down in the Paris Agreement (5)

do no significant harm — borrowed from another act; this instrument states no meaning of its own Article 18

ecosystem — a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit (13)

ecosystem services — the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to the economic, social, cultural and other benefits that people derive from those ecosystems (14)

energy efficiency — the more efficient use of energy at all the stages of the energy chain from production to final consumption (17)

environmentally sustainable investment — an investment in one or several economic activities that qualify as environmentally sustainable under this Regulation (1)

financial market participant — a financial market participant as defined in point (1) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 and includes a manufacturer of a pension product to which a Member State has decided to apply that Regulation in accordance with Article 16 of that Regulation (2)

financial product — borrowed from another act; this instrument states no meaning of its own (3)

good condition — in relation to an ecosystem, that the ecosystem is in good physical, chemical and biological condition or of a good physical, chemical and biological quality with self-reproduction or self-restoration capability, in which species composition, ecosystem structure and ecological functions are not impaired (16)

good ecological potential — good ecological potential as defined in point 23 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC (23)

good ecological status — borrowed from another act; this instrument states no meaning of its own (a)

good environmental status — good environmental status as defined in point 5 of Article 3 of Directive 2008/56/EC (21)

good groundwater chemical status — borrowed from another act; this instrument states no meaning of its own (b)

good status — for surface water, having both ‘good ecological status’ as defined in point 22 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC and ‘good surface water chemical status’ as defined in point 24 of Article 2 of that Directive; for groundwater, having both ‘good groundwater chemical status’ as defined in point 25 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC and ‘good quantitative status’ as defined in point 28 of Article 2 of that Directive (22)

greenhouse gas — a greenhouse gas listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on a mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and for reporting other information at national and Union level relevant to climate change and repealing Decision No 280/2004/EC (OJ L 165, 18.6.2013, p. 13). (7)

groundwater — groundwater as defined in point 2 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC (20)

issuer — an issuer as defined in point (h) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market, and repealing Directive 2003/71/EC (OJ L 168, 30.6.2017, p. 12). (4)

marine waters — marine waters as defined in point 1 of Article 3 of Directive 2008/56/EC (18)

pollutant — a substance, vibration, heat, noise, light or other contaminant present in air, water or land which may be harmful to human health or the environment, which may result in damage to material property, or which may impair or interfere with amenities and other legitimate uses of the environment (10)

pollution — the direct or indirect introduction of pollutants into air, water or land as a result of human activity; in the context of the marine environment, pollution as defined in point 8 of Article 3 of Directive 2008/56/EC; in the context of the water environment, pollution as defined in point 33 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC (12)

soil — the top layer of the Earth’s crust situated between the bedrock and the surface, which is composed of mineral particles, organic matter, water, air and living organisms (11)

surface water — surface water as defined in point 1 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC (19)

waste hierarchy — borrowed from another act; this instrument states no meaning of its own (8)