Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Environmental and Energy Systems

The transition towards renewable energy sources and green technologies for energy generation and storage is expected to mitigate the climate emergency in the coming years. However in many cases this progress has been hampered by our dependency on critical materials or other resources that are often processed at high environmental burdens. Yet many studies have shown that environmental and energy issues are strictly interconnected and require a comprehensive understanding of resource management strategies and their implications. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is among the most inclusive analytical techniques to analyze sustainability benefits and trade-offs within complex systems and in this Special Issue it is applied to assess the mutual influences of environmental and energy dimensions. The selection of original articles reviews and case studies addressed covers some of the main driving applications for energy requirements and greenhouse gas emissions including power generation bioenergy biorefinery building and transportation. An insightful perspective on the current topics and technologies and emerging research needs is provided. Alone or in combination with integrative methodologies LCA can be of pivotal importance and constitute the scientific foundation on which a full system understanding can be reached.