The evolution of life cycle assessment in European policies over three decades
The evolution of life cycle assessment in European policies over three decades
复制标题
三十年来欧洲政策生命周期评估的演变
DOI：
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发表时间：
2021
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Fulvio Ardente
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
S. Sala;A. Amadei;A. Beylot;Fulvio Ardente
生命周期思维（LCT）和生命周期评估（LCA）越来越被认为是支持可持续转型的关键概念和方法。LCA在决策支持、全面覆盖环境维度的目标以及确定热点、可能的权衡和生命周期阶段或影响类别之间的负担转移方面发挥着相关作用。当在策略领域需要决策支持时，这些特性也是相关的。本研究以欧盟政策为重点，探讨了三十年来生命周期概念和方法的演变和实施。采用历史的观点，对当前欧盟（EU）明确提到LCT、LCA、生命周期成本（LCC）和环境足迹（欧洲产品和组织环境足迹PEF/OEF）的法律行为和通信进行了回顾，考虑到1990年至2020年的时间框架。这些文件按年份和类型（例如法规、指令、通信）以及所涵盖的部门（例如废物、能源、建筑）进行分类。确定了生命周期概念和方法发挥关键作用的文件，并得出了这些法律行为和来文的清单。多年来，LCT和生命周期方法越来越多地在政策中被提及。从1992年的生态标签法规到2019年的绿色协议，生命周期的考虑在欧盟尤为重要。本工作共分析了159项政策和167份来文。虽然在某些部门（例如产品、车辆和废物）生命周期的概念和方法已被采用，具有较高的规范性，但在其他部门（例如粮食和农业）的实施仅处于初步阶段。此外，生命周期（尤其是LCT）经常只是作为一个一般概念以一种相当通用的方式被提及和引用。此外，更严格和严格的方法（LCA、PEF/OEF）通常只在考虑到未来的政策发展时才被引用，即使在最近的政策中对生命周期有更成熟的兴趣。欧盟在政策实施LCT/LCA方面一直走在前列。然而，尽管这种实施有增长的趋势，但与生命周期相关的新的严格和强制性要求的开发仍然相对有限。事实上，在科学和政策制定之间的接口（例如验证和市场监督）仍然有一些问题需要解决，以确保更广泛地实施LCT和LCA。
Life cycle thinking (LCT) and life cycle assessment (LCA) are increasingly considered pivotal concept and method for supporting sustainable transitions. LCA plays a relevant role in decision support, for the ambition of a holistic coverage of environmental dimensions and for the identification of hotspots, possible trade-offs, and burden shifting among life cycle stages or impact categories. These features are also relevant when the decision support is needed in policy domain. With a focus on EU policies, the present study explores the evolution and implementation of life cycle concepts and approaches over three decades. Adopting an historical perspective, a review of current European Union (EU) legal acts and communications explicitly mentioning LCT, LCA, life cycle costing (LCC), and environmental footprint (the European Product and Organisation Environmental Footprint PEF/OEF) is performed, considering the timeframe from 1990 to 2020. The documents are categorised by year and according to their types (e.g. regulations, directives, communications) and based on the covered sectors (e.g. waste, energy, buildings). Documents for which life cycle concepts and approaches had a crucial role are identified, and a shortlist of these legal acts and communications is derived. Over the years, LCT and life cycle approaches have been increasingly mentioned in policy. From the Ecolabel Regulation of 1992, to the Green Deal in 2019, life cycle considerations are of particular interest in the EU. The present work analysed a total of 159 policies and 167 communications. While in some sectors (e.g. products, vehicles, and waste) life cycle concepts and approaches have been adopted with higher levels of prescriptiveness, implementation in other sectors (e.g. food and agriculture) is only at a preliminary stage. Moreover, life cycle (especially LCT) is frequently addressed and cited only as a general concept and in a rather generic manner. Additionally, more stringent and rigorous methods (LCA, PEF/OEF) are commonly cited only in view of future policy developments, even if a more mature interest in lifecycle is evident in recent policies. The EU has been a frontrunner in the implementation of LCT/LCA in policies. However, despite a growing trend in this implementation, the development of new stringent and mandatory requirements related to life cycle is still relatively limited. In fact, there are still issues to be solved in the interface between science and policy making (such as verification and market surveillance) to ensure a wider implementation of LCT and LCA.