IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i9p1605-d111340.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life Cycle Impact Assessment in the Arctic: Challenges and Research Needs

Author

Listed:
  • Johan Berg Pettersen

    (Industrial Ecology Programme and Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
    Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, The Arctic University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway)

  • Xingqiang Song

    (Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, The Arctic University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway)

Abstract

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used for environmental assessment of products and production processes to support environmental decision-making both worldwide and in the Arctic. However, there are several weaknesses in the impact assessment methodology in LCA, e.g., related to uncertainties of impact assessment results, absence of spatial differentiation in characterization modeling, and gaps in the coverage of impact pathways of different “archetypal” environments. Searching for a new resource base and areas for operation, marine and marine-based industries are continuously moving north, which underlines the need for better life cycle impact assessment in the Arctic, particularly to aid in industrial environmental management systems and stakeholder communications. This paper aims to investigate gaps and challenges in the application of the currently available impact assessment methods in the Arctic context. A simplified Arctic mining LCA case study was carried out to demonstrate the relevance of Arctic emissions at the midpoint and endpoint levels, as well as possible influences of the Arctic context on the impact assessment results. Results of this study showed that significant research gaps remain in Arctic-dependent life cycle impact assessment, particularly on: (i) the possible influences of the Arctic-specific features on characterization factors for impact assessment (such as seasonality, cold climate, precipitation, and marine dependence); and (ii) the coverage of impact pathways, especially on the under-addressed marine impacts and marine/near-shore dispersion processes. Addressing those identified research gaps and demand for future Arctic life cycle impact assessment could increase the credibility of LCA as an environmental decision-making support tool for Arctic industries and better support sustainable Arctic development.

Suggested Citation

  • Johan Berg Pettersen & Xingqiang Song, 2017. "Life Cycle Impact Assessment in the Arctic: Challenges and Research Needs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-20, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:9:p:1605-:d:111340
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/9/1605/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/9/1605/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gérald Darnis & Dominique Robert & Corinne Pomerleau & Heike Link & Philippe Archambault & R. Nelson & Maxime Geoffroy & Jean-Éric Tremblay & Connie Lovejoy & Steve Ferguson & Brian Hunt & Louis Forti, 2012. "Current state and trends in Canadian Arctic marine ecosystems: II. Heterotrophic food web, pelagic-benthic coupling, and biodiversity," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 179-205, November.
    2. Jean-Éric Tremblay & Dominique Robert & Diana Varela & Connie Lovejoy & Gérald Darnis & R. Nelson & Akash Sastri, 2012. "Current state and trends in Canadian Arctic marine ecosystems: I. Primary production," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 161-178, November.
    3. Cherubini, Francesco & Fuglestvedt, Jan & Gasser, Thomas & Reisinger, Andy & Cavalett, Otávio & Huijbregts, Mark A.J. & Johansson, Daniel J.A. & Jørgensen, Susanne V. & Raugei, Marco & Schivley, Greg , 2016. "Bridging the gap between impact assessment methods and climate science," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 129-140.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zheng Wan & Jiawei Ge & Jihong Chen, 2018. "Energy-Saving Potential and an Economic Feasibility Analysis for an Arctic Route between Shanghai and Rotterdam: Case Study from China’s Largest Container Sea Freight Operator," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-13, March.
    2. Lucrezia Ravasio & Svein-Erik Sveen & Raymond Riise, 2020. "Green Building in the Arctic Region: State-of-the-Art and Future Research Opportunities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-20, November.
    3. Andreas Nicolaidis Lindqvist & Sarah Broberg & Linda Tufvesson & Sammar Khalil & Thomas Prade, 2019. "Bio-Based Production Systems: Why Environmental Assessment Needs to Include Supporting Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-26, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nariê Rinke Dias de Souza & Bruno Colling Klein & Mateus Ferreira Chagas & Otavio Cavalett & Antonio Bonomi, 2021. "Towards Comparable Carbon Credits: Harmonization of LCA Models of Cellulosic Biofuels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Lelde Timma & Elina Dace & Troels Kristensen & Marie Trydeman Knudsen, 2020. "Dynamic Sustainability Assessment Tool: Case Study of Green Biorefineries in Danish Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-23, September.
    3. Jean-Éric Tremblay & Dominique Robert & Diana Varela & Connie Lovejoy & Gérald Darnis & R. Nelson & Akash Sastri, 2012. "Current state and trends in Canadian Arctic marine ecosystems: I. Primary production," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 161-178, November.
    4. Johanna Olofsson, 2021. "Time-Dependent Climate Impact of Utilizing Residual Biomass for Biofuels—The Combined Influence of Modelling Choices and Climate Impact Metrics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-17, July.
    5. Morgan R. Edwards & Jessika E. Trancik, 2022. "Consequences of equivalency metric design for energy transitions and climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 175(1), pages 1-27, November.
    6. Charles Breton & Pierre Blanchet & Ben Amor & Robert Beauregard & Wen-Shao Chang, 2018. "Assessing the Climate Change Impacts of Biogenic Carbon in Buildings: A Critical Review of Two Main Dynamic Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-30, June.
    7. Lelde Timma & Elina Dace & Marie Trydeman Knudsen, 2020. "Temporal Aspects in Emission Accounting—Case Study of Agriculture Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-21, February.
    8. Albers, Ariane & Collet, Pierre & Lorne, Daphné & Benoist, Anthony & Hélias, Arnaud, 2019. "Coupling partial-equilibrium and dynamic biogenic carbon models to assess future transport scenarios in France," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 316-330.
    9. Alexandre Tisserant & Francesco Cherubini, 2019. "Potentials, Limitations, Co-Benefits, and Trade-Offs of Biochar Applications to Soils for Climate Change Mitigation," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-34, November.
    10. Jörg Schwinger & Ali Asaadi & Nadine Goris & Hanna Lee, 2022. "Possibility for strong northern hemisphere high-latitude cooling under negative emissions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    11. David Barber & Matthew Asplin & Tim Papakyriakou & Lisa Miller & Brent Else & John Iacozza & C. Mundy & M. Gosslin & Natalie Asselin & Steve Ferguson & Jennifer Lukovich & Gary Stern & Ashley Gaden & , 2012. "Consequences of change and variability in sea ice on marine ecosystem and biogeochemical processes during the 2007–2008 Canadian International Polar Year program," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 135-159, November.
    12. Lausselet, Carine & Cherubini, Francesco & Oreggioni, Gabriel David & del Alamo Serrano, Gonzalo & Becidan, Michael & Hu, Xiangping & Rørstad, Per Kr. & Strømman, Anders Hammer, 2017. "Norwegian Waste-to-Energy: Climate change, circular economy and carbon capture and storage," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 50-61.
    13. Dharik S. Mallapragada & Bryan K. Mignone, 2020. "A theoretical basis for the equivalence between physical and economic climate metrics and implications for the choice of Global Warming Potential time horizon," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 107-124, January.
    14. Niko Heeren & Stefanie Hellweg, 2019. "Tracking Construction Material over Space and Time: Prospective and Geo‐referenced Modeling of Building Stocks and Construction Material Flows," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 23(1), pages 253-267, February.
    15. Shanshan Wang & Jiaxin Chen & Michael T. Ter‐Mikaelian & Annie Levasseur & Hongqiang Yang, 2022. "From carbon neutral to climate neutral: Dynamic life cycle assessment for wood‐based panels produced in China," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(4), pages 1437-1449, August.
    16. T. Kulkarni & J. Watkins & S. Nickels & D. Lemmen, 2012. "Canadian International Polar Year (2007–2008): an introduction," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 1-11, November.
    17. Otavio Cavalett & Sigurd Norem Slettmo & Francesco Cherubini, 2018. "Energy and Environmental Aspects of Using Eucalyptus from Brazil for Energy and Transportation Services in Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-18, November.
    18. Gérald Darnis & Dominique Robert & Corinne Pomerleau & Heike Link & Philippe Archambault & R. Nelson & Maxime Geoffroy & Jean-Éric Tremblay & Connie Lovejoy & Steve Ferguson & Brian Hunt & Louis Forti, 2012. "Current state and trends in Canadian Arctic marine ecosystems: II. Heterotrophic food web, pelagic-benthic coupling, and biodiversity," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 179-205, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:9:p:1605-:d:111340. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.