What are the main environmental impacts and products contributing to the biodiversity footprint of EU consumption? A comparison of life cycle impact assessment methods and models

This paper analyses common and divergent messages in the assessment of biodiversity impacts of EU consumption among different LCIA methods and models. The coverage of impact categories was not homogeneous among the assessed methods, but land use was always covered. Land use, climate change and ecotoxicity had a major role in overall impacts. Biodiversity impacts were produced by a limited number of consumed products, where food (meat), mobility and household goods were outlined as top contributors. Most contributing inventory processes and elementary flows were associated to most contributing representative products (e.g., animal feed). The relevance and presence of elementary flows in LCIA methods and models were heterogeneous for most of the impact categories. The results of this study highlight the relevance of impact category coverage in the assessment of biodiversity impacts. Limited coverage of impact categories might underestimate the impacts of other drivers of biodiversity loss, especially climate change and ecotoxicity.

SANYE MENGUAL Esther;  BIGANZOLI Fabrizio;  VALENTE Antonio;  PFISTER Stephan;  SALA Serenella; 

2023-09-22

SPRINGER HEIDELBERG

JRC128572

0948-3349 (online),   

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11367-023-02169-7,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC128572,   

10.1007/s11367-023-02169-7 (online),