Harmonising and UPgrading GREENhouse gas removal (GGR) consequential Life Cycle Assessment (UP-green-LCA)

《GGR专题专题》项目建议书。为了实现英国削减温室气体(GHG)排放的目标，整个英国经济应该实现并保持每年3%的稳定减排。这是英国为实现全球变暖1.5摄氏度的潜在目标而提出的要求。已经提出了不同的技术(例如土地管理和利用变化、海洋施肥、具有碳捕获和储存的生物能源、生物炭、直接空气捕获)来消除温室气体；但考虑到对整个经济的所有影响，这些技术的实施可能会产生巨大的和不可预见的影响。一些技术，如植树造林、生物能源、碳捕获和储存，可能会产生巨大的土地利用变化，并影响食物链。生命周期评估(LCA)等方法论方法已被广泛采用来评估不同的温室气体清除技术(GGRT)。LCA允许考虑生产系统、产品或服务的原材料提取、生产、运输、使用和废物处理所产生的所有影响。特别是，相应的生命周期评价方法被用来评估各种温室气体清除技术应用的后果。然而，随之而来的LCA在很大程度上是基于假设的，这种方法必然会带来很大的不确定性。此外，对于评估GGRT的LCA方法还没有达成共识，更不用说评估结果了，需要对不同GGRT的疗效和成本进行公平的比较，才能准确评估GGRT的益处。这项研究建议是一种尝试，以减少缺乏一致性，并增加准确性和稳健性的影响替代GGRT。该项目的主要目的是协调评估GGRT的各种生命周期评估方法，包括生物炭应用、生物质碳储存、土地管理变化、海洋肥力和直接空气捕获。该项目还旨在系统地测试和评估与在GGRT中应用相应的LCA有关的不确定性，以改进相应的LCA方法以消除温室气体。新方法将与其他旨在消除温室气体技术的联合会和研究项目进行比较，并将用于针对每一温室气体消除组的具体案例研究的相应生命周期评估。所采用的方法包括对经济部门进行系统审查，重点放在分析结果影响和分析中的不确定性的具体方法上(例如对经济反应的假设)。选定的案例研究将被用来测试目前的方法，以确定和排名与相应的生命周期评价相关的各种不确定因素(以及其他优势和劣势)的重要性。这将与与参与评估GGRT的其他研究人员和关键顾问举行的一系列研讨会结合在一起，以协调所开发的方法。顾问将组成一个咨询小组，代表将受到大规模实施GGRT影响的经济、政策和第三部门组织的领域。这将纳入当前相应的生命周期评估方法的升级过程，目的是使GGRT的评估更加可靠和准确，以实现真正和实质性的全球变暖(全球每年至少减少1-10GT的二氧化碳当量)。

"GGR topic-specific" project proposal. To achieve the UK targets for cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a steady reduction of 3% should be achieved and maintained every year by the whole UK economy. This is the requirement for UK in order to achieve the potential target of 1.5 degrees C of global warming. Different techniques (e.g. land management and use change, ocean fertilisation, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, biochar, direct air capture) have been proposed to remove GHG; but their implementation can have large and unforeseen effects considering all the impacts across the economy. Some techniques such as afforestation, bioenergy, carbon capture and storage could potentially have large land use change and affect the food chains. Methodological approaches, such life cycle assessment (LCA), have been widely adopted to assess different greenhouse gas removal techniques (GGRT). LCA allows to account for all the impacts from raw material extraction, production, transport, use and waste disposal of a production systems, product or service. In particular consequential LCA approaches have been used to assess the consequences of the various applications of greenhouse gas removal techniques. However consequential LCA is largely based on assumptions and large uncertainties are bound to this approach. Further there is no consensus on the LCA methodology to assess GGRT, let alone the results, and a fair comparison of the efficacy and cost of the different GGRT is required to have an accurate assessment of the benefits of GGRT. This research proposal is an attempt in reducing the lack of consistency and increase accuracy and robustness of the impacts of alternative GGRT. The main aim of this project is to harmonise the various LCA approaches to assess GGRT, including biochar application, biomass carbon storage, land management change, ocean fertilisation and direct air capture. The project also aims to systematically test and assess the uncertainties related to the application of the consequential LCA to GGRT to improve consequential LCA approaches for greenhouse gas removal. The new approaches are compared with other consortia and research projects targeted to greenhouse gas removal techniques and will be used in a consequential LCA of specific case studies for each greenhouse gas removal group.The methodology adopted consists in a systematic review across economic sectors and focuses on the specific methods of analysing consequential impacts and uncertainties in the analyses (e.g. assumptions about economic responses). Selected case studies will be used to test the current approaches to identify and rank the importance of the various sources of uncertainties (and other strengths and weaknesses) related to consequential LCA. This will be combined with a series of workshops with other researchers and key advisers involved in assessing GGRT to harmonise the developed approaches. The advisors will form an advisory panel and will represent areas of the economy, policy and third sector organisations that would be affected by large scale implementation of GGRT. This will feed into an upgrading process of current consequential LCA methods with the aim of making the assessment of GGRT more robust and more accurate to achieve a real and substantial reduction of global warming (at least 1-10 Gt of CO2eq per year worldwide).