European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Varese 21027, Italy.
Environ Sci Technol. 2020 Aug 18;54(16):9715-9728. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.9b05153. Epub 2020 Aug 4.
The consumption of materials and products is one of the drivers of biodiversity loss, which in turn affects ecosystem functioning and has socio-economic consequences worldwide. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a reference methodology for appraising the environmental impacts of products along their value chains. Currently, a generally accepted life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) framework for assessing biodiversity impacts is lacking. The existing LCIA models present weaknesses in terms of the impact drivers considered, geographical coverage, as well as the indicators and metrics adopted. Sound ecological indicators and metrics need to be integrated in order to better assess the impacts of value chains on biodiversity on a global, regional, and local scale. This review analyses studies which, using a life cycle perspective, assess the impacts of products' and services' value chains on biodiversity. We identify and discuss promising synergies between the studies which look beyond the life cycle context, and apply other biodiversity metrics. Our results highlight that the existing metrics of biodiversity impact assessment in LCA are poor at capturing the complexities of biodiversity. There are operational models at the midpoint level that expand on the assessed dimensions of biodiversity (e.g., ecosystem structure), and the drivers of biodiversity loss (e.g., assessment of species exploitation), but efforts are required to fully include these models in the LCA framework. In the business domain, many initiatives are developing frameworks to assess impacts on biodiversity. Many approaches make use of LCIA methods and input-output databases. However, these are generally coupled with other biodiversity metrics. This shows that the current LCA framework is not yet sufficient to support decision-making based on different sets of biodiversity indicators. Ecosystem accounting may provide important ecological information for both the inventory and the impact assessment stages of LCA, helping to disentangle the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services. Looking beyond the LCA domain can lead us to new ways of advancing the coverage of biodiversity impacts, in a way that increases the relevance of LCA across a wider range of areas. Future work should assess the indicators provided in various policy contexts.
材料和产品的消耗是生物多样性丧失的驱动因素之一，而生物多样性的丧失又会影响生态系统的功能，并在全球范围内产生社会经济后果。生命周期评估（LCA）是评估产品在其价值链中环境影响的参考方法。目前，缺乏用于评估生物多样性影响的普遍接受的生命周期影响评估（LCIA）框架。现有的 LCIA 模型在考虑的影响驱动因素、地理覆盖范围以及采用的指标和度量方面存在弱点。需要整合健全的生态指标和度量标准，以便更好地在全球、区域和地方各级评估价值链对生物多样性的影响。本综述分析了使用生命周期视角评估产品和服务价值链对生物多样性影响的研究。我们确定并讨论了超越生命周期背景并应用其他生物多样性指标的研究之间的有希望的协同作用。我们的研究结果表明，LCA 中现有的生物多样性影响评估指标在捕捉生物多样性的复杂性方面表现不佳。在中间点层面上有一些操作模型可以扩展生物多样性的评估维度（例如，生态系统结构）以及生物多样性丧失的驱动因素（例如，物种利用评估），但需要努力将这些模型完全纳入 LCA 框架中。在商业领域，许多举措正在开发评估对生物多样性影响的框架。许多方法利用 LCIA 方法和投入产出数据库。然而，这些通常与其他生物多样性指标结合使用。这表明，当前的 LCA 框架还不足以支持基于不同生物多样性指标的决策。生态系统核算可以为 LCA 的清单和影响评估阶段提供重要的生态信息，有助于理清生物多样性与生态系统服务之间的关系。超越 LCA 领域可以为我们提供新的方法来推进生物多样性影响的覆盖范围，从而在更广泛的领域内提高 LCA 的相关性。未来的工作应该评估各种政策背景下提供的指标。
