Life Cycle Assessment and Land-Use Changes: Effectiveness and Limitations

International audienceThe assessment of the environmental performance of first-generation biofuels deployed in the transportation sector using the standardized method of life cycle analysis is still largely debated in the scientific and policy-making arenas because of the difficulties encountered when accounting for land-use change (LUC) effects. This is due to the complexity of these unintended consequences of policies promoting biofuels, which can be a source of potent impacts on ecosystems and the environment at large. This chapter focuses on how to address the issue of LUC in the environmental assessment of biofuels, by introducing the different types of underlying mechanisms while emphasizing their complexity, and also by reviewing the methodologies put forward to include LUC effects in life cycle assessments of biofuel chains. Emphasis was also placed on the variability of currently available assessments of LUC effects

Life-Cycle Assessment of agricultural feedstock for biorefineries

Chapitre 3The supply of biomass feedstock to biorefineries plays a key role in the overall environmental performance of biobased products. This chapter reviews the main challenges associated with the application of life-cycle assessment to biomass supply chains from agricultural residues, arable crops, or perennial lignocellulosic grasses and addresses them through state-of-the-art approaches involving spatially explicit feedstock modeling. These challenges include the variability in crop yields and field emissions, the effects of land-use changes (whether direct or indirect) and the handling of coproducts, especially for first-generation biofuels. Examples from recent research projects at the regional scale in France illustrate how the proposed modeling can tackle these issues and be used for decision-making purposes when designing feedstock production systems and supply chains. Avenues for progress include an optimal selection or mixture of feedstocks, the use of fertilizer recommendation systems for arable crops, and targeting those land parcels that have the lowest GHG emissions and best potential to store soil carbon overall

The importance of land use change in the environmental balance of biofuels

The potential of first generation biofuels to mitigate climate change is still largely debated in the scientific and policy-making arenas. It is currently assessed through life cycle assessment (LCA), a method for accounting for the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of a given product from “cradle-to-grave”, which is widely used to aid decision making on environmental issues. Although LCA is standardized, its application to biofuels leads to inconclusive results often fraught by a high variability and uncertainty. This is due to differences in quantifying the environmental impacts of feedstock production, and the difficulties encountered when considering land use changes (LUC) effects. The occurrence of LUC mechanisms is in part the consequence of policies supporting the use of biofuels in the transport sector, which implicitly increases the competition between various possible uses of land worldwide. Here, we review the methodologies recently put forward to include LUC effects in LCAs, and examples from the US, Europe and France. These cross analysis show that LCA needs to be adapted and combined to other tools such as economic modeling in order to provide a more reliable assessment of the biofuels chains

The importance of land use change in the environmental balance of biofuels

The potential of first generation biofuels to mitigate climate change is still largely debated in the scientific and policy-making arenas. It is currently assessed through life cycle assessment (LCA), a method for accounting for the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of a given product from “cradle-to-grave”, which is widely used to aid decision making on environmental issues. Although LCA is standardized, its application to biofuels leads to inconclusive results often fraught by a high variability and uncertainty. This is due to differences in quantifying the environmental impacts of feedstock production, and the difficulties encountered when considering land use changes (LUC) effects. The occurrence of LUC mechanisms is in part the consequence of policies supporting the use of biofuels in the transport sector, which implicitly increases the competition between various possible uses of land worldwide. Here, we review the methodologies recently put forward to include LUC effects in LCAs, and examples from the US, Europe and France. These cross analysis show that LCA needs to be adapted and combined to other tools such as economic modeling in order to provide a more reliable assessment of the biofuels chains

The importance of land use change in the environmental balance of biofuels

The potential of first generation biofuels to mitigate climate change is still largely debated in the scientific and policy-making arenas. It is currently assessed through life cycle assessment (LCA), a method for accounting for the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of a given product from "cradle-to-grave", which is widely used to aid decision making on environmental issues. Although LCA is standardized, its application to biofuels leads to inconclusive results often fraught by a high variability and uncertainty. This is due to differences in quantifying the environmental impacts of feedstock production, and the difficulties encountered when considering land use changes (LUC) effects. The occurrence of LUC mechanisms is in part the consequence of policies supporting the use of biofuels in the transport sector, which implicitly increases the competition between various possible uses of land worldwide. Here, we review the methodologies recently put forward to include LUC effects in LCAs, and examples from the US, Europe and France. These cross analysis show that LCA needs to be adapted and combined to other tools such as economic modeling in order to provide a more reliable assessment of the biofuels chains

Compte rendu de la 8e conférence internationale relative aux Analyses de Cycle de Vie dans le secteur agro-alimentaire : LCA Food 2012

Compte- Rendu dans la revue OCL. Oléagineux Corps Gras LipidesThe eighth edition of the ‘‘international conference on Life Cycle Assessment in the Agrifood sector’’ was held in Saint Malo (France) in October 2012. It was organized by INRA, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, with the support of ADEME, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency. The LCA Food conferences are the first international scientific forum on LCA in the agri-food sector. ITERG and CETIOM attended this conference. This paper reviews the principal research topics in progress on life cycle assessment shown and interesting for vegetable oil sector

Unravelling Land-Use Change Mechanisms at Global and Regional Scales

Unravelling the dynamics of land-use change is key to assess the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of land-based strategies regarding climate or energy. In this prospect, this paper proposes an analytical decomposition of land-use change resulting from a shock in agricultural demand which takes into account indirect effects from price signals. This analytical equation is numerically estimated using a global model of land-use combining biophysics and economics. While being relatively simple, this model captures the main processes of land-use change: change in the intensive and extensive margins, international trade, change in intermediary demand and possible by-products. At the global scale, our results show that yield losses due to the conversion of marginal land amount approximately to half of yield gains due to fertiliser use. At the regional scale, patterns of yield and area responses are depicted by assessing the potentials for intensification (yield gaps) and extensification (areas of extensive pastures) given the future pathways of agricultural demand

Compte rendu de la 8e conférence internationale relative aux Analyses de Cycle de Vie dans le secteur agro-alimentaire : LCA Food 2012

The eighth edition of the ‘‘international conference on Life Cycle Assessment in the Agrifood sector’’ was held in Saint Malo (France) in October 2012. It was organized by INRA, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, with the support of ADEME, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency. The LCA Food conferences are the first international scientific forum on LCA in the agri-food sector. ITERG and CETIOM attended this conference. This paper reviews the principal research topics in progress on life cycle assessment shown and interesting for vegetable oil sector