Life cycle assessment of the agricultural sector in Iran (2007–2014)

Iran is among the ten countries which has the largest share of CO 2 emission and also has the highest amount among the Middle East countries. However, the agricultural sector in Iran is one of the major emitters of some greenhouse gas emissions, such as nitrous oxide. Therefore, this work aimed to study the environmental impacts of agricultural production in Iran and determine the impact category with the highest potential for the environmental damage in this region for the period of 2007–2014. For this purpose, the three impact categories of global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP) and terrestrial eutrophication potential (TEP) were selected to be evaluated through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The results showed that the characterization indices of GWP, AP, and TEP impact categories for agricultural sector in Iran were 20,405,789 tonnes CO 2 eq, 303,145 tonnes SO 2 eq and 640,340 tonnes NOxeq, respectively for the year of 2014. For the period in question, agriculture accounted for 4%, 12%, and 26% of the GWP, AP and TEP impact categories in Iran, respectively. Overall, the TEP impact category had the greatest negative effect on the environment in term of the agricultural sector in Iran. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 37: 1750–1757, 2018