1 Introduction
2 Methodology
Impact category | Substance groups as in ILCD | Data sources |
---|---|---|
Climate change | CO2, CH4, N2O both from direct emissions and those associated with LULUCF (land use, land-use change, and forestry); PCFs; HFCs; SF6 | - EDGAR v. 4.2 FT 2010 (EC-JRC & PBL 2013) |
HCFC-22; HCFC-140; CFC-11 | - Fraser et al. (2014) | |
Halon-1211; Halon sum (i.e., Halon 1301 and 2402); CFC-10 | - Fraser et al. (2013) | |
Halon-1001; HCFC-141b; HCFC-142b | - Fraser et al. (2011) | |
CFC 12; CFC 113; R-40 | - Fahey and Hegglin (2011) | |
Aggregated datum on global GHG emissions | - UNFCCC (2017) | |
Ozone depletion | HCFC-140 | - Fraser et al. (2015) |
CFC-11; HCFC-22 | - Fraser et al. (2014) | |
Halon-1211; Halon sum; CFC-10 | - Fraser et al. (2013) | |
Halon-1001; HCFC-141b; HCFC-142b | - Fraser et al. (2011) | |
CFC 12; CFC 113; R-40 | - Fahey and Hegglin (2011) | |
Human toxicity (cancer, non-cancer) and ecotoxicity freshwater | Air emissions: Heavy metals (HMs) Organics non-NMVOC (non-methane volatile organic compounds), dioxins, PAH, HCB, etc. | - Additional literature for: ○ Metals: Cheng et al. (2014a, b); Leclerc and Laurent (2017); Leclerc et al. (2019); Tian et al. (2015); UNEP (2013); ○ Pesticides: Leclerc and Laurent (2018) |
Releases in water: Industrial releases of HMs + organics Urban wastewater treatment plants (HMs + organics) | ||
Releases in soil: Industrial releases (HMs, POPs) Sewage sludge (containing organics and metals) | ||
Manure Pesticides: active ingredients (AI) breakdown (i.e., disaggregated into EU countries and major types of crops) combined with dosage statistics. | ||
Particulate matter | NOx; NH3 | |
SO2 | ||
PM10, PM2.5 | ||
CO | ||
Ionizing radiations | Emissions of radionuclides to air and water from electricity generation from nuclear sources, i.e., uranium mining and milling, nuclear power plants, coal, natural gas and oil combustion, geothermal energy extraction | - UNSCEAR (2017a) |
Emissions of radionuclides to air and water from nuclear spent-fuel reprocessing | ||
Emission of radionuclides from crude oil energy mix supply | - EF dataset (EC- JRC 2017) | |
Photochemical ozone formation | NMVOC; NOX, CH4;CO | - EDGAR v. 4.3.1 (EC-JRC & PBL 2016) |
Acidification | NOX; SO2; NH3 | |
Eutrophication, terrestrial | NOX; NH3 | |
Eutrophication, freshwater | Phosphorous (total) to soil and water, from agriculture | |
Phosphorus, total to water from wastewater treatment plants | ||
Eutrophication, marine | NOx; NH3 | |
NO3 (to water) | - Oita et al. 2016 | |
Nitrogen (total) to water, from agriculture | - Bouwman et al. (2013) | |
Nitrogen (total) to water, from wastewater treatment plants | ||
Land use | “Land occupation” and “land transformation”: forest, cropland, grassland, settlements, unspecified | |
Water use (water depletion in ILCD) | Gross freshwater abstraction & gross water consumption | |
Resource use (resource depletion in ILCD) | Mineral and metals | |
Fossils | - WNA (2016b) | |
- IEA (2014) |
2.1 Criteria for data selection and data sources
2.2 Robustness assessment of the calculated normalization factors
Criteria and definitions | Score* | |
---|---|---|
Inventory coverage completeness: extent to which the inventory data cover the list of elementary flows available in ILCD, for each impact category | I | High (60 to 100%) |
II | Medium (30 to 59%) | |
III | Low (0 to 29%) | |
Inventory robustness: quality of data, assessed by considering both the combination of different sources and the adoption of extrapolation strategies | I | High (data from published datasets from official data sources, subjected to a quality assurance procedure and limited use of extrapolation methods, i.e., < 20% of the impact derived from extrapolation) |
II | Medium (non-publicly available or non-peer-reviewed datasets and/or use of extrapolation methods for more than 20% but less than 80% of the impact) | |
II | Low (use of extrapolation methods for more than 80% of the impact) | |
Robustness of the impact assessment method: classification of the ILCD recommended characterization models (EC-JRC 2011) based on model quality | I | The model is recommended and satisfactory |
II | The model is recommended but in need of some improvements | |
III | The model is recommended, but to be applied with caution |
3 Results and discussion
ILCD 2011 | EF 3.0 | Inventory assessment, applicable to both ILCD and EF 3.0 | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Impact category | Unit | ILCD global NFs | Alternative results adopting different sources/assumptions | Robustness of ILCD impact assessment3 | Impact category | Unit per year (2010) | Global NFs for EF 3.0 | Robustness of EF 3.0 impact assessment4 | Inventory coverage completeness1 | Inventory robustness2 |
Climate change | kg CO2 eq | 4.95E+13 | 2.37E+13 | I | Climate change | kg CO2 eq | 5.55E+13 | I | II | I |
Ozone depletion | kg CFC-11 eq | 3.34E+08 | 3.39E+08 | I | Ozone depletion | kg CFC-11 eq | 3.33E+08 | I | III | II |
Human toxicity, cancer | CTUh | 3.37E+05 | 9.16E+04 (avg. based)5 | II/III | Human toxicity, cancer | CTUh | 1.28E+05 | II | III | III |
2.66E+05 (Hg based) | ||||||||||
4.06E+04 (GDP based) | ||||||||||
7.12E+04 (CO2 based) | ||||||||||
1.80E+05 (HMs adjusted) | ||||||||||
Human toxicity, non-cancer | CTUh | 5.91E+06 | 1.13E+06 (avg. based) | II/III | Human toxicity, non-cancer | CTUh | 1.59E+06 | II | III | III |
3.27E+06 (Hg based) | ||||||||||
5.01E+05 (GDP based) | ||||||||||
8.77E+05 (CO2 based) | ||||||||||
3.37E+06 (HMs adjusted) | ||||||||||
Ecotoxicity freshwater | CTUe | 5.78E+13 | 2.75E+13 (avg. based) | II/III | Ecotoxicity freshwater | CTUe | 2.94E+14 | II | III | III |
8.15E+13 (Hg based) | ||||||||||
1.21E+13 (GDP based) | ||||||||||
2.12E+13 (CO2 based) | ||||||||||
8.15E+13 (HMs adjusted) | ||||||||||
Particulate matter | kg PM2.5 eq (urban/non-urban CFs) | 9.27E+10 | 4.61E+10 | I | Particulate matter | Disease incidences (emission height-specific CFs, and urban/non-urban) | 4.11E+06 | I | I/II | I/II |
kg PM2.5 eq (average CFs) | 5.37E+10 | Disease incidences (average CFs) | 1.24E+07 | |||||||
Ionizing radiation | kBq U-235 eq | 9.54E+11 | 4.29E+12 | II | Ionizing radiation | kBq U-235 eq | 9.54E+11 | II | II | III |
Photochemical ozone formation | kg NMVOC eq | 2.80E+11 | n.a. | II | Photochemical ozone formation | kg NMVOC eq | 2.80E+11 | II | III | I/II |
Acidification | mol H+ eq | 3.83E+11 | 3.07E+11 | II | Acidification | mol H+ eq | 3.83E+11 | II | II | I/II |
3.26E+11 | ||||||||||
Eutrophication, terrestrial | mol N eq | 1.22E+12 | 7.55E+11 | II | Eutrophication, terrestrial | mol N eq | 1.22E+12 | II | II | I/II |
8.68E+11 | ||||||||||
Eutrophication, freshwater | kg P eq | 1.11E+10 | n.a. | II | Eutrophication, freshwater | kg P eq | 1.11E+10 | II | II | III |
Eutrophication, marine | kg N eq | 1.35E+11 | n.a. | II | Eutrophication, marine | kg N eq | 1.35E+11 | II | II | II/III |
Land use | kg C deficit | 8.83E+14 | n.a. | III | Land use | Pt (country-specific CFs) | 5.65E+15 | III | II | II |
Pt (global default CFs) | 7.19E+15 | |||||||||
Water depletion | m3 water eq (country-specific CFs) | 7.67E+13 | 4.81E+13 | III | Water use | m3 water eq of deprived water (country-specific CFs, marginal approach) | 7.91E+13 | III | I | II |
m3 water eq (global default CFs) | 7.10E+11 | 5.01E+11 | m3 water eq of deprived water (global default CFs, marginal approach) | 7.89E+13 | ||||||
Resource depletion | kg Sb eq | 3.74E+09 | 3.84E+09 | II | Resource use, fossils | MJ | 4.48E+14 | III | I | II |
Resource use, minerals and metals | kg Sb eq | 4.39E+08 | III |
3.1 Climate change
3.1.1 Global inventory
3.1.2 Normalization factors
3.2 Ozone depletion
3.2.1 Global inventory
3.2.2 Normalization factors
3.3 Human toxicity (cancer and non-cancer) and ecotoxicity freshwater
3.3.1 Global inventory
3.3.2 Normalization factors
3.4 Particulate matter
3.4.1 Global inventory
3.4.2 Normalization factors
3.5 Ionizing radiation
3.5.1 Global inventory
3.5.2 Normalization factors
3.6 Photochemical ozone formation
3.6.1 Global inventory
3.6.2 Normalization factor
3.7 Acidification
3.7.1 Global inventory
3.7.2 Normalization factors
3.8 Eutrophication, terrestrial
3.8.1 Global inventory
3.8.2 Normalization factors
3.9 Eutrophication, freshwater
3.9.1 Global inventory
3.9.2 Normalization factor
3.10 Eutrophication, marine
3.10.1 Global inventory
3.10.2 Normalization factors
3.11 Land use
3.11.1 Global inventory
3.11.2 Normalization factors
3.12 Water use
3.12.1 Global inventory
3.12.2 Normalization factors
3.13 Resources use
3.13.1 Global inventory
3.13.2 Normalization factors
3.14 Comparison of European over global normalization factors
EU/global NFs ratio (%) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
ILCD impact category | Unit according to ILCD* | As in this study (ILCD v.1.010)a | As in PROSUITE (Laurent et al. 2013)b | As in Sleeswijk et al. (2008)c |
Climate change | kg CO2 eq | 9 | 8 | 12 |
Ozone depletion | kg CFC-11 eq | 3 | 4 | 3 |
Human toxicity, cancer | CTUh | 6 | 5 | 10 |
Human toxicity, non-cancer | CTUh | 5 | 4 | 10 |
Particulate matter | kg PM2.5 eq | 2d | 10 | 8 |
Ionizing radiations | kBq U-235 eq | 61e | 6 | 36 |
Photochemical ozone formation | kg NMVOC eq | 6 | 4 | 8 |
Acidification | mol H+ eq | 6 | 7 | 8 |
Eutrophication, terrestrial | mol N eq | 7 | 11 | n.a. |
Eutrophication, freshwater | kg P eq | 7 | 17 | 9 |
Eutrophication, marine | kg N eq | 6 | 13 | 10 |
Land use | kg C deficit | 4 | 2 | 6 |
Ecotoxicity freshwater | CTUe | 8 | 21f | 20 |
Water depletion (water use in EF) | m3 water eq | < 1 | 20 | n.a. |
Resource depletion (resource use in EF) | kg Sb eq | 1 | 2 | n.a. |
Source of C-14 emission | Global electricity generated from nuclear power plants (GW a) | Europe share of electricity produced with the specific technology (%) | C-14 discharges to air (kBq/GW a) | C-14 emissions—EU scale (kBq) | C-14 emissions—global scale (kBq) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
PWR | 204.88 | 50 | 8.30E+07 | 8.51E+09 | 1.70E+10 |
BWR | 63.72 | 19 | 1.30E+08 | 1.58E+09 | 8.28E+09 |
HWR | 17.09 | 7 | 6.00E+08 | 7.32E+08 | 1.03E+10 |
LWGR | 8.15 | 100 | 1.30E+09 | 1.06E+10 | 1.06E+10 |
AGR | 5.01 | 100 | 1.40E+09 | 7.01E+09 | 7.01E+09 |
GCR | 0.93 | 100 | 5.50E+09 | 5.12E+09 | 5.12E+09 |
FBR | 0.42 | 100 | 1.20E+08 | 5.04E+07 | 5.04E+07 |
Spent-fuel reprocessing (21% reprocessed in EU) | 1.63E+10 | 7.84E+10 | |||
Total | 4.99E+10 | 7.84E+10 |