Revised dynamic climate change impact assessment for life cycle assessment through delay factors expressions

Cyrille François (), Fatima-Zahrae El-Amrani, Guillaume Batot and Anne Ventura ()
Additional contact information
Cyrille François: LAET - Laboratoire Aménagement Économie Transports - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ENTPE - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Fatima-Zahrae El-Amrani: IFPEN - IFP Energies nouvelles
Guillaume Batot: IFPEN - IFP Energies nouvelles
Anne Ventura: MAST-GPEM - Granulats et Procédés d'Elaboration des Matériaux - Université Gustave Eiffel, IRSTV - Institut de Recherche en Sciences et Techniques de la Ville - FR 2488 - BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM) - UA - Université d'Angers - ULR - La Rochelle Université - Cerema - Centre d'Etudes et d'Expertise sur les Risques, l'Environnement, la Mobilité et l'Aménagement - Ecole Supérieure des Géomètres et Topographes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INSIS - CNRS - Institut des Sciences de l'Ingénierie et des Systèmes - CNRS Ingénierie - Air Pays de la Loire - IMT Atlantique - IMT Atlantique - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - Nantes Univ - Nantes Université - Nantes Univ - ECN - NANTES UNIVERSITÉ - École Centrale de Nantes - Nantes Univ - Nantes Université - Nantes Univ - ENSA Nantes - NANTES UNIVERSITÉ - École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Nantes - Nantes Univ - Nantes Université - Institut Agro Rennes Angers - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) ranges in temporal complexity, with fully dynamic approach requiring full life-cycle chronologies for both foreground and background systems. For instance, LCAs based on Environmental Product Declaration (EPDs), required by the French RE2020 regulation, are partially dynamic, since only the foreground timeline is available. The goal of this research is to provide a user-friendly and rigorous method to conduct partially dynamic LCAs for climate change impact based on EPDs. Delay factors are built as coefficient depending on the time distribution of emissions, to define the dynamic characterization factor as a function of the static one. Compatibility constraints between static and dynamic imposes an observation time T equal to the sum of the Life Cycle Duration (LCD) and the Time Horizon of the Impact (THI). Literal mathematical expressions of delay factors and their behaviors are provided for Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Global Temperature Potential (GTP). The application scope of these delay factors covers all greenhouse gases (GHG) and large temporal range of LCD and THI. A case study based on three background products and randomly generated foreground emissions shows that the RE2020 regulation dynamic factors overestimate benefits obtained by delaying emissions compared to present method. This happens because the method ignores compatibility constraints between static and dynamic approaches and because it does not differentiate delay factors for distinct GHGs. However, delaying emissions reduces GWP but still raises GTP, questioning the use of GWP as a dynamic indicator, as it may falsely suggest a declining impact when it is actually increasing.

Keywords: Global temperature potential; Global warming potential; Carbon storage; Environmental regulation; Integration time; Dynamic life cycle Impact assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-04-15
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Carbon Footprints, 2026, 5 (22), ⟨10.20517/cf.2025.117⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05703520

DOI: 10.20517/cf.2025.117

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().