Life Cycle Assessment and Land-Use Changes: Effectiveness and Limitations
Résumé
The 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.