Lifecycle emissions
Keeping 1.5°C Alive: Closing the Gap in the 2020s, version 1.0, published by the Energy Transitions Commission in September 2021, defines lifecycle emissions as: ‘Emissions from the energy, material, and waste flows of a product and their impact on the environment. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) should take into account the greenhouse gas impacts across land use change (if applicable), growth, harvesting, transportation, conversion, and use of bioresources.’
Resource Efficiency and Climate Change, Material Efficiency Strategies for a Low-Carbon Future, published by the UN Environment Programme in 2020, defines life-cycle emissions The emissions associated with the entire life cycle of a product, including material production, construction, operations and disposal. Includes credit for replacing primary materials when recycling at the end-of-life of a product, and for the storage of carbon in wood. Also labelled as ‘systems-wide’ emissions. Here, they refer to the system-wide emissions associated with the production, operations, and disposal of the entire modelled product stock.’
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