openLCA archived user forum

Hi,

I have been trying out openLCA for product carbon footprinting, and currently using the ecoinvent 2.2 LCIA methods as downloaded from the openLCA downloads page. I am focusing on the CML 2001/ IPCC 2001/2007 LCIA methods and specifically on the climate change - GWP 100a. Am I right that these should be the standard methods to use for carbon footprinting?

However, I realised that in these methods, only the carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and from land transformation have been included but not the "unspecified" carbon dioxide emissions to air. Should this be included?

I have noticed this due to the extremely small GWP values I have obtained from calculations seeing that some of the processes e.g. elcd datasets uses the carbon dioxide output flow as to air/unspecified. Please advice.


Many thanks,
Fiona.

Hi Fiona,
yes you are right - IPCC 2007 is the method you should use for carbon footprinting. The impact methods from ecoinvent are provided as they are obtained from the ecoinvent centre, with a small update regarding Recipe. They indeed skip the unspecified carbon emissions and it is good to add them. We are just about to publish an integrated, more comprehensive LCIA method pack which you can then use instead of the impact_methods that address mainly ecoinvent 2.2 flows.
Best wishes,
Andreas

Hi Andreas,

Thanks for the helpful advice. Looking forward to the updated LCIA pack and will include these flows meanwhile.

Kind regards,
Fiona.