WHAT ARE THE IMPACTS ASSOCIATED WITH

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1 Anne- Marie Boulay, Jane Bare, Lorenzo Benini, Markus Berger, Inga Klemmayer, Michael Lathuilliere, Philippe Loubet, Alessandro Manzardo, Manuele Margni, Montserrat Núñez, Bradley Ridoutt, Sebastien Worbe, Stephan Pfister Building consensus on a generic water scarcity indicator for LCA- based water footprint: preliminary results from WULCA LCA Food, San Francisco (USA), 2014

2 Outputs Pesticide Diesel Cu CO 2 WHAT ARE THE IMPACTS ASSOCIATED WITH Problems Respiratory effects Photochem. oxydation Ozone layer depletion Ionizing radiation WATER? Areas of protection Human Health Phosphate Inputs Irrigation Water Crude Oil Iron Ore Toxic Impacts Global warming Water availability Acidification Eutrophication Land use Water Footprint Ecosystem Quality Resources Biotic ressource use Abiotic ressouce use 2

3 ISO DIS 14046: Water footprint: Principles, requirements and guidelines Developed in an international consensus- based process Approved in May 2014 Published in August

4 ISO WATER FOOTPRINT IMPORTANT CONCEPTS Should be life- cycle based Could be stand- alone or part of a full Life Cycle Assessment Results should include impact assessment (volumes not sufficient) and address regional issues Both quantity and quality should be considered Comprehensive impact assessment related to water (not only water use but all impacts related to water) Can result in one or several indicators 4

5 Water Footprint types as per ISO Profile of midpoint indicators Human health Ecosystems Water availability MIDPOINT -Water scarcity footprint OR - Water availability footprint ENDPOINT - Malnutrition and/or water related diseases - Terrestrial ecosystems - Aquatic ecosystems Water degradation -Human toxicity -Ecotoxicity -Eutrophication -Acidification Human toxicity -Ecotoxicity -Eutrophication -Acidification qualified water footprint (ex: degradation WF, scarcity WF, etc) Water footprint 5

6 WULCA Working group Water Use in LCA - International initiative for LCA (2007) Goal Provide guidance to practitioners and researchers on the topic of water use impact assessment in LCA Transition into Phase 3 and official acceptance from Life Cycle Initiative in Spring 2013 Identified in Glasgow as a Flagship category from the Global Guidance Flagship categories from UNEP SETAC Life Initiative Anne- Marie Boulay Project Manager, Chair Stephan Pfister Deputy Manager, Co- Chair waterlca.org 6

7 Laying the ground work Framework on how to assess water use in LCA Development of several new methods Quantitative comparison of existing methods Development of a consensual method Qualitative comparison of existing methods 7

8 Inventory from compensation processes Compensation processes Volume of water to be obtained through compensation Human health specific midpoint Impact on human health Water Inventory (Surface water, renewable groundwater, fossil groundwater) Stress- based generic midpoint Ecosystem specific midpoint Impact on Ecosystems Resource specific midpoint Impact on Resources

9 Generic stress- based midpoint No true common midpoint for human health and ecosystems Consistent (proportional) results cannot be obtained between a midpoint indicator and the endpoint indicators à Regionalization affects both midpoint and endpoint models Desire to develop a stress- based midpoint indicator à not necessarily correlated to HH and EQ, à Provides a simple single indicator to support decision à In compliance with ISO

10 Generic stress- based midpoint 10

11 Anthropocentric scarcity Rank correlation: 99% Ecocentric scarcity 11

12 Hydrocentric scarcity approach Rank correlation with anthropo- or ecocentric: 84-85% 12

13 Next steps: Classification of the concepts of current indicators à The right indicator for the right question 13

14 1- Questions: To which extent are humans using the available water in this region?, What is the potential of affecting water availability for human uses? Indicator: Based on consumption- to- availability ratio (CTA) or withdrawals- to- availability ratio (WTA) This indicator represents the intensity of human use with respect to the availability of water but disregards the potential harm on ecosystems (actual or future). 14

15 Consumption- to- availability (CTA) (scale is 5 equal groups of regions) 15

16 2- Questions: What is the potential of depriving another user from water, with no specification of who the user is (i.e. humans or ecosystems)? Depriving: using water that is being used by another user, which means that if they do not have this water, they will actively adapt/change and/or suffer consequences Indicator: based on human and ecosystem demands, divided by available water (Demand- to- Availability, DTA) à This indicator represents the intensity of the water demand in comparison with availability in a region, which means that the higher the demand is in comparison to what is available, the more likely a user will be deprived by an additional demand. Actual effects of this deprivation (adaptation, change or consequences) are not included. 16

17 Demand- to- Availability (DTA) preliminary Scale is 5 equal groups of regions 17

18 3- Questions: How much water is available in this region?, What is the risk of running out of water?, how dry is the region?, how critical is the water availability in this area and how much will an additional use affect it? Indicator: based on (available water per area) - 1 This indicator, when multiplied by inventory, provides the fraction corresponding to the water consumed compared to available. 18

19 Available water per area (Available consumed) water per area 19

20 Conclusions and ongoing work At this point, an indicator based on the DTA ratio seems preferred, but expert workshops are still ongoing It is recognized that desert areas should be considered with care à LCA hypothesis of marginal contribution may not apply for water consumption in these regions Current discussions on other modeling aspects (thresholds, data source, regional and temporal resolution, etc) Results expected in Spring 2015! à Follow us: waterlca.org and Linked In group WULCA 20

21 SPONSORS 21

22 QUESTIONS? Anne- Marie Boulay, PhD CIRAIG Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal anne- waterlca.org 22

23 Link with ISO water footprint process There is no official link between ISO DIS on Water footprint and WULCA, however: -The convener and several delegates of the ISO working group are members of WULCA - The work of WULCA has served as a basis in the development of the Standard -The standard does not propose one specific method, but rather Principles, Requirements and Guidelines - WULCA can propose this method as the result of a consensus which could be integrated in the next review of the standard 23

24 Goal of the flagship project Establish a consensual set of environmental impact category indicators For use in Environmental product information schemes Corporate reporting of multinational companies International and/or national environmental policies Common LCA work commissioned by governments and companies 24

25 General outline Task 1: Scoping phase ( ) Establish short list of impact category indicators and themes for first and second stage à Yokohama 2012 & Glasgow 2013 scoping workshops à Stakeholder feedback at events worldwide Task 2: Consensus finding, stage 1 ( ) à Pellston workshop 1 (with output being an agreement) Task 3: Consensus finding, stage 2 ( ) à Pellston workshop 2 Task 4: Dissemination (2018) 25

26 Global Guidance on LCIA indicators Chairs: Olivier Jolliet and Rolf Frischknecht Consensus on global warming indicator Consensus on other indicators Consensus on water use indicator WULCA Chair: Anne- Marie Boulay Co- chair: Stephan Pfister Education and training Scientific support to other initiatives and events (e.g. ISO TR 14073) Guidance to practitioners and researchers 26

27 Current General Framework Inventory Midpoint impacts Endpoint Impacts Inventory from compensation processes Compensation processes Volume of water to be obtained through compensation Water Inventory (Surface water, renewable groundwater, fossil groundwater) Scarcity Volume of water unavailable to other users Distribution of water deprivation Disruption of water balance Overuse assessment Water deprived for domestic users Water deprived for agriculture Water deprived for fisheries Change in flow quantity Change in groundwater table level Change in flow regime Loss of water quality Overuse of renewable water bodies fossil groundwater depletion Socioeconomic parameter Volume of water deprived causing health damages Water-related diseases effect per m 3 deprived (dom) Malnutrition effect per m 3 deprived (agri) Malnutrition effect per m 3 deprived (fish) Terrestrial species loss per m 3 deprived Aquatic species loss per m 3 deprived Impact on human health Impact on Ecosystems Impact on Ressources 27