Post by Aaron Paris

New publication 📢: Recommendations for an Informed and Responsible Use of Integrated Assessment Models in Prospective LCA The use of Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) to generate prospective Life Cycle Inventory (pLCI) databases via premise has rapidly become common practice in prospective LCA. This approach helps address important challenges, such as temporal mismatches between foreground and background systems and the representation of sector-wide mitigation efforts. However, the assumptions and limitations associated with IAMs are not always fully considered in practice. In this article, Marc van der Meide, Amelie Müller, Bernhard Steubing, Jeroen Guinée, Stefano Cucurachi, Nils T., and I discuss key characteristics of IAMs that are particularly relevant for prospective LCA and propose recommendations for their informed and responsible use. Our intention is not to discourage the use of IAM-based pLCI databases (we use them ourselves), but to support a more informed, responsible, and transparent application. Many thanks to my co-authors for their contributions, Anne de Bortoli et al. for opening the discussion in this field, and to Romain Sacchi for his availability in answering questions and for the detailed documentation of premise. If you’re working on related topics or have thoughts or questions, I’d be very happy to connect and discuss. Open access paper: https://lnkd.in/emzYGHYG