Life Cycle Assessment support to environmental ambitions of EU policies and the Sustainable Development Goals

The European Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ask for a more holistic approach to production and consumption along value chains. The role of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in supporting policy design and monitoring is then pivotal to achieve policy ambitions. This paper explores the potential support of LCA to EU policies and the SDGs, considering also the Planetary Boundaries (PBs) framework. Four main aspects are discussed in this paper: (a) the relationship between LCA, the European Green Deal and the SDGs; (b) the potential use of LCA for monitoring SDG12 and the environmental impacts of production and consumption; (c) the assessment of SDGs adopting an LCA approach in both relative and absolute sustainability perspectives; and (d) the integration of the PBs framework in EU policy and the SDGs. Results highlight that LCA is fundamental for addressing environmental impacts of value chains and consumption patterns and their implication on environment-related SDGs. However, the specific coverage relies on the scope of the LCA study or LCA-based indicator and the impact assessment models underpinning the Life Cycle Impact Assessment method employed. For example, the impact categories of the Environmental Footprint method covers 5 SDGs on environmental aspects. Focusing on sustainable consumption, the LCA-based Consumer Footprint indicator to monitor SDG12 demonstrates that specific goals can be addressed by specifically-designed indicators. Different sustainability perspectives can be combined with LCA for assessing SDGs, such as contrasting decoupling and the PBs. While EU policy has conceptually integrated the PBs, further efforts are required in the SDGs framework.

SANYE MENGUAL Esther;  SALA Serenella; 

2022-09-12

WILEY

JRC124302

1551-3777 (online),   

https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ieam.4586,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC124302,   

10.1002/ieam.4586 (online),