title: Climate policy decisions require policy-based lifecycle analysis.
abstract: Lifecycle analysis (LCA) metrics of greenhouse gas emissions are increasingly being used to select technologies supported by climate policy. However, LCAs typically evaluate the emissions associated with a technology or product, not the impacts of policies. Here, we show that policies supporting the same technology can lead to dramatically different emissions impacts per unit of technology added, due to multimarket responses to the policy. Using a policy-based consequential LCA, we find that the lifecycle emissions impacts of four US biofuel policies range from a reduction of 16.1 gCO2e to an increase of 24.0 gCO2e per MJ corn ethanol added by the policy. The differences between these results and representative technology-based LCA measures, which do not account for the policy instrument driving the expansion in the technology, illustrate the need for policy-based LCA measures when informing policy decision making.
authors.affiliation: Cornell University , 432 Warren Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853, United States.
authors.forename: Antonio M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bento
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Klotz
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels / Q000032:analysis; D002980:Climate; D003657:Decision Making; D058735:Environmental Policy; D000431:Ethanol / Q000032:analysis; D005742:Gasoline / Q000032:analysis; D011050:Policy Making; D001335:Vehicle Emissions / Q000032:analysis; D003313:Zea mays / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D005742:Gasoline; D001335:Vehicle Emissions; D000431:Ethanol