Science, Research and Development Working Group

1
NON-FERROUS METALS CONSULTATIVE
FORUM ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Science, Research and Development Working
Group Policy Aspects of Life Cycle
Assessment Sub Group Leader Dr Christian
Bauer The Hague, 25 November 2002
2
Conclusions from Oporto 2001

• compile lessons learned
• derive dos and donts
• build bridges to ongoing initiatives
• identify linkages within the science group and
  also amongst the working groups
• How important is LCA to Sustainable Development ?
• How is LCA used and misused in decision making ?

3
What was done ?

• community Montreal (April 2002)
• Life Cycle Initiative
• SETAC (May 2002)
• Ecobalance (Nov. 2002)
• feedback on existing LCA-work
• contacts to industry
• summary paper on policy making, LCA and metals

4
Application of LCA as a tool
5
Strengths of LCA

• LCA can manage a very detailed process level as
  well as considerations on services in general
• LCA is useful for a multitude of decision-makers
  starting at the level of the designing engineer
  up to policy makers
• LCA can aid decisions on any spatial and temporal
  scale (company level, community level, national
  level, short term, mid term, long term)

6
Chosing LCA as a tool

• It is not always self evident in which cases to
  use LCA.
• More appropriate tools may exist within a given
  decision context.
• Not all stakeholders have a common understanding
  about when to use which tool.

7
Life Cycle Inventories

• There is no universal life cycle inventory (LCI)
  which enables a multitude of decisions.
• Each LCI is individually aligned to a specific
  decision context.

8
Life Cycle Impact Assessment

• There is no universal Life Cycle Impact
  Assessment (LCIA).
• Each case will vary e.g. in relation to the
  number of categories in the analysis and their
  definition.

9
Interpretation

• There is no universal interpretation of LCA
  outcomes.
• Each interpretation has to include additional
  information that cannot be expressed in LCIA.
• One LCIA may have two or more valid
  interpretations when different spatial and
  temporal aspects are considered.

10
Relevance of life cycle stages E-Class
11
Recommendations
In order to strengthen the tool and its
application range further discussion across
stakeholders is necessary. Actions are

• Establish linkages to other tools (Risk
  Assessment, Mass Flow Analysis, etc.)
• Reach consensus on background systems (primary
  production but also recycling)
• suggest appropriate impact indicators
• translate and embed LCA into broader frameworks
  such as Product Stewardship