Mapping Plastic and Plastic Additive Cycles in Coastal Countries: A Norwegian Case Study.

The growing environmental consequences caused by plastic pollution highlight the need for a better understanding of plastic polymer cycles and their associated additives. We present a novel, comprehensive top-down method using inflow-driven dynamic probabilistic material flow analysis (DPMFA) to map the plastic cycle in coastal countries. For the first time, we covered the progressive leaching of microplastics to the environment during the use phase of products and modeled the presence of 232 plastic additives. We applied this methodology to Norway and proposed initial release pathways to different environmental compartments. 758 kt of plastics distributed among 13 different polymers was introduced to the Norwegian economy in 2020, 4.4 Mt was present in in-use stocks, and 632 kt was wasted, of which 15.2 kt (2.4%) was released to the environment with a similar share of macro- and microplastics and 4.8 kt ended up in the ocean. Our study shows tire wear rubber as a highly pollutive microplastic source, while most macroplastics originated from consumer packaging with LDPE, PP, and PET as dominant polymers. Additionally, 75 kt of plastic additives was potentially released to the environment alongside these polymers. We emphasize that upstream measures, such as consumption reduction and changes in product design, would result in the most positive impact for limiting plastic pollution.

Environmental assessment of diets: overview and guidance on indicator choice.

Comprehensive but interpretable assessment of the environmental performance of diets involves choosing a set of appropriate indicators. Current knowledge and data gaps on the origin of dietary foodstuffs restrict use of indicators relying on site-specific information. This Personal View summarises commonly used indicators for assessing the environmental performance of diets, briefly outlines their benefits and drawbacks, and provides recommendations on indicator choices for actors across multiple fields involved in activities that include the environmental assessment of diets. We then provide recommendations on indicator choices for actors across multiple fields involved in activities that use environmental assessments, such as health and nutrition experts, policy makers, decision makers, and private-sector and public-sector sustainability officers. We recommend that environmental assessment of diets should include indicators for at least the five following areas: climate change, biosphere integrity, blue water consumption, novel entities, and impacts on natural resources (especially wild fish stocks), to capture important environmental trade-offs. If more indicators can be handled in the assessment, indicators to capture impacts related to land use quantity and quality and green water consumption should be used. For ambitious assessments, indicators related to biogeochemical flows, stratospheric ozone depletion, and energy use can be added.

Retrieval operations of derelict fishing gears give insight on the impact on marine life.

Abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear (ALDFG), significantly impacts marine ecosystems and biodiversity by incidental capture known as ghost fishing. Such impacts were quantified during the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries' annual ALDFG cleanup operation in September 2023 by examining the characteristics of retrieved ALDFG and recording the taxonomically sorted catch abundance and biomass. A total of 307 specimens equaling 382 kg of biomass were caught in the recovered gillnets and king crab pots. Gillnets exhibited a 27.3 % greater catch abundance and 50.3 % higher biomass per ALDFG unit mass compared to king crab pots. Margalef, Menhinick, Simpson, Shannon, and Pielou diversity indices showed a more pronounced impact on species richness and biodiversity associated with recovered gillnets. This study introduces an approach to assess the impact of ghost fishing on ecosystems and biodiversity through ALDFG retrieval operations, instrumental in developing estimates of the total ghost fishing capture by ALDFG.

What Is the Impact of Accidentally Transporting Terrestrial Alien Species? A New Life Cycle Impact Assessment Model.

Alien species form one of the main threats to global biodiversity. Although Life Cycle Assessment attempts to holistically assess environmental impacts of products and services across value chains, ecological impacts of the introduction of alien species are so far not assessed in Life Cycle Impact Assessment. Here, we developed country-to-country-specific characterization factors, expressed as the time-integrated potentially disappeared fraction (PDF; regional and global) of native terrestrial species due to alien species introductions per unit of goods transported [kg] between two countries. The characterization factors were generated by analyzing global data on first records of alien species, native species distributions, and their threat status, as well as bilateral trade partnerships from 1870-2019. The resulting characterization factors vary over several orders of magnitude, indicating that impact greatly varies per transportation route and trading partner. We showcase the applicability and relevance of the characterization factors for transporting 1 metric ton of freight to France from China, South Africa, and Madagascar. The results suggest that the introduction of alien species can be more damaging for terrestrial biodiversity as climate change impacts during the international transport of commodities.

Ecotoxicity effect factors for plastic additives on the aquatic environment: a new approach for life cycle impact assessment.

All plastic contains additives. Once in the environment, these will start to leach out and will expose and harm aquatic biota, causing potentially lethal and sub-lethal toxic effects. Even though life cycle assessment covers the toxic impacts of several thousands of chemicals, models to assess the toxic impacts of plastic additives are only emerging. We gathered 461 data points from the literature (266 for freshwater and 195 for marine ecosystems) for 75 species belonging to 9 different phyla. The endpoints effective concentration and lethal concentration, no observed effects concentrations and lowest observed effect concentration tested in acute and chronic exposure, were harmonized into chronic values by applying extrapolation factors. The collected data points covered 75 main plastic additives. This allowed us to calculate 25 Effect factors, 19 for single chemicals and four for overarching categories (alkylphenols, benzophenones, brominated flame retardants and phosphates. In addition, we calculated an aggregated effect factor for chemicals that did not fit in any of the previous groups, as well as a Generic effect factor including 404 gathered data points. The estimated potentially affected fraction (PAF) for the single additives varied between 20.69 PAF·m3·kg-1 for diethyl phthalate and 11081.85 PAF·m3·kg-1 for 4-Nonylphenol. The factors can in future be combined with fate and exposure factors to derive a characterization factor for toxicity caused by additives in aquatic species. This is an important advancement for the assessment of the impacts of plastic debris on aquatic species, thus providing information for decision-makers, as well as guiding policies for the use of additives, ultimately aiming to make the plastic value chain more sustainable.

Biodiversity Impact Assessment Considering Land Use Intensities and Fragmentation.

Land use is a major threat to terrestrial biodiversity. Life cycle assessment is a tool that can assess such threats and thereby support environmental decision-making. Within the Global Guidance for Life Cycle Impact Assessment (GLAM) project, the Life Cycle Initiative hosted by UN Environment aims to create a life cycle impact assessment method across multiple impact categories, including land use impacts on ecosystem quality represented by regional and global species richness. A working group of the GLAM project focused on such land use impacts and developed new characterization factors to combine the strengths of two separate recent advancements in the field: the consideration of land use intensities and land fragmentation. The data sets to parametrize the underlying model are also updated from previous models. The new characterization factors cover five species groups (plants, amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles) and five broad land use types (cropland, pasture, plantations, managed forests, and urban land) at three intensity levels (minimal, light, and intense). They are available at the level of terrestrial ecoregions and countries. This paper documents the development of the characterization factors, provides practical guidance for their use, and critically assesses the strengths and remaining shortcomings.

Advancing water footprint assessments: Combining the impacts of water pollution and scarcity.

Several water footprint indicators have been developed to curb freshwater stress. Volumetric footprints support water allocation decisions and strive to increase water productivity in all sectors. In contrast, impact-oriented footprints are used to minimize the impacts of water use on human health, ecosystems, and freshwater resources. Efforts to combine both perspectives in a harmonized framework have been undertaken, but common challenges remain, such as pollution and ecosystems impacts modelling. To address these knowledge gaps, we build upon a water footprint assessment framework proposed at conceptual level to expand and operationalize relevant features. We propose two regionalized indicators, namely the water biodiversity footprint and the water resource footprint, that aggregate all impacts from toxic chemicals, nutrients, and water scarcity. The first impact indicator represents the impacts on freshwater ecosystems. The second one models the competition for freshwater resources and its consequences on freshwater availability. As part of the framework, we complement the two indicators with a sustainability assessment representing the levels above which ecological and human freshwater needs are no longer sustained. We test our approach assessing the sustainability of water use in the European Union in 2010. Water stress hampers 15 % of domestic, agricultural and industrial water demand, mainly due to irrigation and pesticide emissions in southern Europe. Moreover, damage to the freshwater ecosystems is widespread and mostly resulting from chemical emissions from industry. Approximately 5 % of the area is exceeding the regional sustainability limits for ecosystems and human water requirements altogether. Concerted efforts from all sectors are needed to reduce the impacts of emissions and water consumption under the sustainability limits. These advances are considered an important step toward the harmonization of volumetric and impact-oriented approaches to achieve consistent and holistic water footprinting as well as contributing to strengthen the policy relevance of water footprint assessments.

Generating environmental sampling and testing data for micro- and nanoplastics for use in life cycle impact assessment.

Ongoing efforts focus on quantifying plastic pollution and describing and estimating the related magnitude of exposure and impacts on human and environmental health. Data gathered during such work usually follows a receptor perspective. However, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) represents an emitter perspective. This study examines existing data gathering and reporting approaches for field and laboratory studies on micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) exposure and effects relevant to LCA data inputs. The outcomes indicate that receptor perspective approaches do not typically provide suitable or sufficiently harmonised data. Improved design is needed in the sampling, testing and recording of results using harmonised, validated and comparable methods, with more comprehensive reporting of relevant data. We propose a three-level set of requirements for data recording and reporting to increase the potential for LCA studies and models to utilise data gathered in receptor-oriented studies. We show for which purpose such data can be used as inputs to LCA, particularly in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods. Implementing these requirements will facilitate proper integration of the potential environmental impacts of plastic losses from human activity (e.g. litter) into LCA. Then, the impacts of plastic emissions can eventually be connected and compared with other environmental issues related to anthropogenic activities.

Global water consumption impacts on riverine fish species richness in Life Cycle Assessment.

Reduced river discharge and flow regulation are significant threats to freshwater biodiversity. An accurate representation of potential damage of water consumption on freshwater biodiversity is required to quantify and compare the environmental impacts of global value chains. The effect of discharge reduction on fish species richness was previously modeled in life cycle impact assessment, but models were limited by the restricted geographical scope of underlying species-discharge relationships and the small number of species data. Here, we propose a model based on a novel regionalized species-discharge relationship (SDR). Our SDR-based model covers 88 % of the global landmass (2320 river basins worldwide excluding deserts and permanently frozen areas) and is based on a global dataset of 11,450 riverine fish species, simulated river discharge, elevation, and climate zones. We performed 10-fold cross-validation to select the best set of predictors and validated the obtained SDRs based on observed discharge data. Our model performed better than previous SDRs employed in life cycle impact assessment (Kling-Gupta efficiency coefficient about 4 times larger). We provide both marginal and average models with their uncertainty ranges for assessing scenarios of small and large-scale water consumption, respectively, and include regional and global species loss. We conducted an illustrative case study to showcase the method's applicability and highlight the differences with the currently used approach. Our models are useful for supporting sustainable water consumption and riverine fish biodiversity conservation decisions. They enable a more specific, reliable, and complete impact assessment by differentiating impacts on regional riverine fish species richness and irreversible global losses, including up-to-date species data, and providing spatially explicit values with high geographical coverage.

More than half of data deficient species predicted to be threatened by extinction.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is essential for practical and theoretical efforts to protect biodiversity. However, species classified as "Data Deficient" (DD) regularly mislead practitioners due to their uncertain extinction risk. Here we present machine learning-derived probabilities of being threatened by extinction for 7699 DD species, comprising 17% of the entire IUCN spatial datasets. Our predictions suggest that DD species as a group may in fact be more threatened than data-sufficient species. We found that 85% of DD amphibians are likely to be threatened by extinction, as well as more than half of DD species in many other taxonomic groups, such as mammals and reptiles. Consequently, our predictions indicate that, amongst others, the conservation relevance of biodiversity hotspots in South America may be boosted by up to 20% if DD species were acknowledged. The predicted probabilities for DD species are highly variable across taxa and regions, implying current Red List-derived indices and priorities may be biased.

Native range estimates for red-listed vascular plants.

Besides being central for understanding both global biodiversity patterns and associated anthropogenic impacts, species range maps are currently only available for a small subset of global biodiversity. Here, we provide a set of assembled spatial data for terrestrial vascular plants listed at the global IUCN red list. The dataset consists of pre-defined native regions for 47,675 species, density of available native occurrence records for 30,906 species, and standardized, large-scale Maxent predictions for 27,208 species, highlighting environmentally suitable areas within species' native regions. The data was generated in an automated approach consisting of data scraping and filtering, variable selection, model calibration and model selection. Generated Maxent predictions were validated by comparing a subset to available expert-drawn range maps from IUCN (n = 4,257), as well as by qualitatively inspecting predictions for randomly selected species. We expect this data to serve as a substitute whenever expert-drawn species range maps are not available for conducting large-scale analyses on biodiversity patterns and associated anthropogenic impacts.

Considering habitat conversion and fragmentation in characterisation factors for land-use impacts on vertebrate species richness.

Human land use is one of the primary threats to terrestrial species richness and is considered a priority for meeting global sustainability and biodiversity targets. Decision-support tools, such as life cycle assessment (LCA), are widely used for developing strategies to achieve such objectives. Currently available life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods apply the countryside species-area relationship (c-SAR) to quantify habitat conversion impacts on species richness. However, additional effects of habitat fragmentation are yet ignored in these assessments. We use the species-habitat relationship (SHR), an adaptation of the c-SAR that considers both habitat conversion and fragmentation effects, to develop a new set of land-use characterisation factors for 702 terrestrial ecoregions (in 238 countries), four land-use types (urban, cropland, pasture, and forestry), and four taxonomic groups (amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles; plus the aggregate of these vertebrate groups). The SHR generally predicts higher per-area impacts of land-use than the impacts estimated by the c-SAR (a median relative difference of +9%), indicating that land-use impacts may be systematically underestimated when ignoring fragmentation effects. Whereas per-area impacts of land-use on regional species richness are highest in temperate regions, reflecting the diminished extent of natural habitat, per-area impacts of land-use on global species richness are highest in the subtropics, reflecting the importance of tropical regions and islands to global vertebrate species diversity. The large variety in magnitude of land-use impacts across the world's regions emphasizes the importance of regionalised assessments. The set of characterisation factors proposed here can be readily used in environmental decision-making.

Controlling biodiversity impacts of future global hydropower reservoirs by strategic site selection.

Further reservoir-based hydropower development can contribute to the United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs) on affordable and clean energy, and climate action. However, hydropower reservoir operation can lead to biodiversity impacts, thus interfering with the SDGs on clean water and life on land. We combine a high-resolution, location-specific, technical assessment with newly developed life cycle impact assessment models, to assess potential biodiversity impacts of possible future hydropower reservoirs, resulting from land occupation, water consumption and methane emissions. We show that careful selection of hydropower reservoirs has a large potential to limit biodiversity impacts, as for example, 0.3% of the global hydropower potential accounts for 25% of the terrestrial biodiversity impact. Local variations, e.g. species richness, are the dominant explanatory factors of the variance in the quantified biodiversity impact and not the mere amount of water consumed, or land occupied per kWh. The biodiversity impacts are mainly caused by land occupation and water consumption, with methane emissions being much less important. Further, we indicate a trade-off risk between terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity impacts, as due to the weak correlation between terrestrial and aquatic impacts, reservoirs with small aquatic biodiversity impacts tend to have larger terrestrial impacts and vice versa.

Quantification and valuation of ecosystem services in life cycle assessment: Application of the cascade framework to rice farming systems.

The integration of ecosystem service (ES) assessment with life cycle assessment (LCA) is important for developing decision support tools for environmental sustainability. A prequel study has proposed a 4-step methodology that integrates the ES cascade framework within the cause-effect chain of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) to characterize the physical and monetary impacts on ES provisioning due to human interventions. We here follow the suggested steps in the abovementioned study, to demonstrate the first application of the integrated ES-LCIA methodology and the added value for LCA studies, using a case study of rice farming in the United States, China, and India. Four ES are considered, namely carbon sequestration, water provisioning, air quality regulation, and water quality regulation. The analysis found a net negative impact for rice farming systems in all three rice producing countries, meaning the detrimental impacts of rice farming on ES being greater than the induced benefits on ES. Compared to the price of rice sold in the market, the negative impacts represent around 2%, 6%, and 4% of the cost of 1 kg of rice from China, India, and the United States, respectively. From this case study, research gaps were identified in order to develop a fully operationalized ES-LCIA integration. With such a framework and guidance in place, practitioners can more comprehensively assess the impacts of life cycle activities on relevant ES provisioning, in both physical and monetary terms. This may in turn affect stakeholders' availability to receive such benefits from ecosystems in the long run.

Methodological review and detailed guidance for the life cycle interpretation phase.

Life cycle interpretation is the fourth and last phase of life cycle assessment (LCA). Being a "pivot" phase linking all other phases and the conclusions and recommendations from an LCA study, it represents a challenging task for practitioners, who miss harmonized guidelines that are sufficiently complete, detailed, and practical to conduct its different steps effectively. Here, we aim to bridge this gap. We review available literature describing the life cycle interpretation phase, including standards, LCA books, technical reports, and relevant scientific literature. On this basis, we evaluate and clarify the definition and purposes of the interpretation phase and propose an array of methods supporting its conduct in LCA practice. The five steps of interpretation defined in ISO 14040-44 are proposed to be reorganized around a framework that offers a more pragmatic approach to interpretation. It orders the steps as follows: (i) completeness check, (ii) consistency check, (iii) sensitivity check, (iv) identification of significant issues, and (v) conclusions, limitations, and recommendations. We provide toolboxes, consisting of methods and procedures supporting the analyses, computations, points to evaluate or check, and reflective processes for each of these steps. All methods are succinctly discussed with relevant referencing for further details of their applications. This proposed framework, substantiated with the large variety of methods, is envisioned to help LCA practitioners increase the relevance of their interpretation and the soundness of their conclusions and recommendations. It is a first step toward a more comprehensive and harmonized LCA practice to improve the reliability and credibility of LCA studies.

Global characterization factors for terrestrial biodiversity impacts of future land inundation in Life Cycle Assessment.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool for analyzing and comparing environmental impacts of products throughout their life cycles, facilitating shifts towards more environmentally friendly products. However, LCA does currently not address terrestrial biodiversity impacts related to the conversion of terrestrial habitat into aquatic habitat. This conversion can occur because of sea level rise, establishment of new land-based aquaculture, as well as reservoir expansion or creation. Here, we focus on land occupation and terrestrial biodiversity impacts, while transformation impacts, and habitat gain for aquatic species were beyond the scope of the study. To be able to estimate the regional and global terrestrial biodiversity impacts of future land occupation from terrestrial to aquatic habitat in LCA, we developed new characterization factors (CFs) for 781 terrestrial ecoregions, 5 land cover/use types, and 4 taxonomic groups. The basis for the development of the proposed CFs is the model concept of the currently recommended method for quantifying land use impacts on biodiversity in LCA by the Life Cycle Initiative hosted by United Nations Environmental Program. The global CFs vary between 7.44 E-20 PDF/m2 and 6.25 E-09 PDF/m2, showing that a highly variable terrestrial biodiversity impact of land inundation between land cover/use types, taxonomic groups and ecoregions exists.

Towards integrating the ecosystem services cascade framework within the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) cause-effect methodology.

The assessment of ecosystem services (ES) is covered in a fragmented manner by environmental decision support tools that provide information about the potential environmental impacts of supply chains and their products, such as the well-known Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. Within the flagship project of the Life Cycle Initiative (hosted by UN Environment), aiming at global guidance for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) indicators, a dedicated subtask force was constituted to consolidate the evaluation of ES in LCA. As one of the outcomes of this subtask force, this paper describes the progress towards consensus building in the LCA domain concerning the assessment of anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems and their associated services for human well-being. To this end, the traditional LCIA structure, which represents the cause-effect chain from stressor to impacts and damages, is re-casted and expanded using the lens of the ES 'cascade model'. This links changes in ecosystem structure and function to changes in human well-being, while LCIA links the effect of changes on ecosystems due to human impacts (e.g. land use change, eutrophication, freshwater depletion) to the increase or decrease in the quality and/or quantity of supplied ES. The proposed cascade modelling framework complements traditional LCIA with information about the externalities associated with the supply and demand of ES, for which the overall cost-benefit result might be either negative (i.e. detrimental impact on the ES provision) or positive (i.e. increase of ES provision). In so doing, the framework introduces into traditional LCIA the notion of "benefit" (in the form of ES supply flows and ecosystems' capacity to generate services) which balances the quantified environmental intervention flows and related impacts (in the form of ES demands) that are typically considered in LCA. Recommendations are eventually provided to further address current gaps in the analysis of ES within the LCA methodology.

Potential Consequences of Regional Species Loss for Global Species Richness: A Quantitative Approach for Estimating Global Extinction Probabilities.

Because the biosphere is highly heterogeneous, species diversity impacts are typically assessed at local or regional scales. Because regional species richness impact metrics refer to different species compositions, they cannot be easily compared or aggregated to global impacts. Translating regional species richness impacts into global impacts allows for comparisons between impacts and facilitates the estimation of global species extinctions. This requires a conversion (or weighting) factor that takes into account the characteristics of regionally specific species compositions. We developed a methodology for deriving such conversion factors based on species' habitat ranges, International Union for Conservation of Nature threat levels, and species richness. We call these conversion factors global extinction probabilities (GEPs) of the reference location or region. The proposed methodology allows for the calculation of GEPs for any spatial unit and species group for which data on spatial distribution are available and can be implemented in methodologies like life cycle impact assessment. Furthermore, the GEPs can be used for the identification of conservation hot spots. The results of the proposed GEPs (for various taxonomic groups) show that the risk that regional species loss may result in global species extinctions significantly differs per region and informs where irreversible biodiversity impacts are more likely to occur.

Overview and recommendations for regionalized life cycle impact assessment.

PURPOSE: Regionalized life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) has rapidly developed in the past decade, though its widespread application, robustness, and validity still faces multiple challenges. Under the umbrella of UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, a dedicated cross-cutting working group on regionalized LCIA aims to provides an overview of the status of regionalization in LCIA methods. We give guidance and recommendations to harmonize and support regionalization in LCIA for developers of LCIA methods, LCI databases, and LCA software. METHOD: A survey of current practice among regionalized LCIA method developers was conducted. The survey included questions on chosen method spatial resolution and scale, the spatial resolution of input parameters, choice of native spatial resolution and limitations, operationalization and alignment with life cycle inventory data, methods for spatial aggregation, the assessment of uncertainty from input parameters and model structure, and variability due to spatial aggregation. Recommendations are formulated based on the survey results and extensive discussion by the authors. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Survey results indicate that majority of regionalized LCIA models have global coverage. Native spatial resolutions are generally chosen based on the availability of global input data. Annual modelled or measured elementary flow quantities are mostly used for aggregating characterization factors (CFs) to larger spatial scales, although some use proxies, such as population counts. Aggregated CFs are mostly available at the country level. Although uncertainty due to input parameter, model structure, and spatial aggregation are available for some LCIA methods, they are rarely implemented for LCA studies. So far, there is no agreement if a finer native spatial resolution is the best way to reduce overall uncertainty. When spatially differentiated models CFs are not easily available, archetype models are sometimes developed. CONCLUSIONS: Regionalized LCIA methods should be provided as a transparent and consistent set of data and metadata using standardized data formats. Regionalized CFs should include both uncertainty and variability. In addition to the native-scale CFs, aggregated CFs should always be provided, and should be calculated as the weighted averages of constituent CFs using annual flow quantities as weights whenever available. This paper is an important step forward for increasing transparency, consistency and robustness in the development and application of regionalized LCIA methods.