Open AccessLife-cycle impacts from different decarbonization pathways for the European car fleet
Author(s) -
Alois Dirnaichner,
Marianna Rottoli,
Romain Sacchi,
Sebastian Rauner,
B. Cox,
Christopher Mutel,
Christian Bauer,
Gunnar Luderer
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
environmental research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.37
H-Index - 124
ISSN - 1748-9326
DOI - 10.1088/1748-9326/ac4fdb
Subject(s) - life cycle assessment , greenhouse gas , renewable energy , environmental economics , climate change , electricity , sustainability , environmental science , powertrain , environmental impact assessment , climate change mitigation , natural resource economics , business , production (economics) , economics , engineering , ecology , physics , macroeconomics , torque , electrical engineering , biology , thermodynamics
For light-duty vehicles (LDVs), alternative powertrains and liquid fuels based on renewable electricity are competing options considered by policymakers and stakeholders for achieving necessary CO 2 emission reductions in the transport sector. While the urgency of climate change and the need to reach mitigation targets are well understood, system-wide implications along other sustainability dimensions need further exploration. We integrate a detailed transport system model into an integrated assessment framework and couple it with prospective life cycle impact analysis. This allows to assess different technological pathways of the European LDV fleet until 2050 for a comprehensive set of environmental and resource depletion indicators. Results indicate that greenhouse gas emissions drop significantly in all mitigation scenarios. However, impacts increase in several non-climate change impact categories even with fully renewable electricity supply. Additional impacts arise from the production of battery and fuel-cell components, and from a significant rise in electricity demand, most prominently for synthetic fuels. We consequently find that changes in mobility life-styles and in the relevant industrial processes are paramount to reduce environmental impacts from a climate-friendly LDV fleet across all categories.