The use of environmental life-cycle analysis for evaluating biofuels

Mar 2008

Life-cycle analysis (LCA), the methodology used to assess the impact of producing biofuels on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), may lead to flawed policy implications as it assumes that coefficients could be fixed rather than functions of policies and market forces. The methodology needs to be modified to recognize the effects of prices and changes in technology and policy over time. Fuel quality standards that are based on LCA are likely to be more costly than when controlling GHG emissions by carbon tax or a global cap-and-trade scheme.

By: D. Rajagopal and D. Zilberman

 
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