Introduction

IEAGHG and the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) jointly organised an interactive workshop discussing issues and challenges surrounding Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology in the context of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS). This workshop built upon an earlier report by IEAGHG “2010/TR2: Environmental evaluation of CCS using Life Cycle Assessment” and addressed a request from CSLF to IEAGHG for further work on this topic. The workshop took place 12^th – 13^th November 2015 at the British Medical Association in London and brought together 23 participants from different backgrounds (i.e. academia, industry and NGOs) and with varying levels of LCA experience (i.e. LCA practitioners as well as users of the results).

Overview

The workshop closed with main conclusions of the discussions in the sessions, highlighting the importance of communicating uncertainties and differences, as well as improving transparency when undertaking LCAs. However, transparency does not automatically equal high quality. In addition, a clearer distinction of LCA from GHG accounting and/or carbon footprinting will be necessary. There was no consensus on harmonisation and weighting. Both can be useful tools but need to come with a statement of underlying assumptions and intentions, and thus should only be used with care (also keeping in mind that “no weighting” means to assign equal weights). Bio-CCS and more recent CCU pathways require a lot more research, as they introduce new issues and increased complexity. LCC and sLCA are less mature than their environmental counterpart, so both should be taken out in parallel rather than integrated for now. The participants felt no need for formal guidelines prescribing specific frameworks, methodologies and tools but welcomed the development of a guidance document including: a) how to document and communicate LCA results for LCA practitioners, and b) how to read and interpret LCA results for non-experts and end-users.