Eco-indicator 99

The European LCA

To create "the European LCA", the total of all emissions, use of resources and land use data for Europe were used. The results were calculated for each of the three perspectives.

The pictures below show the relative contribution of the three damage categories to the overall result. The reddish colours refer to Human Health, the green colours to Ecosystem Quality and the blue colours to Resources.

Note that while the contribution of each damage category depends on the weighting by the panel, the contribution of an impact category within a damage category is determined by the damage models.

Hierarchist

In the default Hierarchist perspective contribution of Human Health and Ecosystem Quality is 40% each. Respiratory effects and greenhouse effects dominate Human Health damages. Land use dominates Ecosystem Quality; Resources is dominated by fossil fuels.

Egalitarian

In the Egalitarian perspective, Ecosystem Health contributes 50% to the overall result. The relative contributions within the damage categories are about the same as in the Hierarchist perspective, except for carcinogenic substances. A Hierarchist would consider a substance as carcinogenic if sufficient scientific proof of a probable or possible carcinogenic effect is available (IARC class 3 and up).

Individualist

In the Individualist perspective, Human Health is by far the most important category. Carcinogenic substances however play virtually no role. The individualist would only include those substances for which the carcinogenic effect is fully proven (IARC class 1).

The Individualists would also not accept (based on experience) that there is a danger fossil fuels can be depleted. This category is left out. For this reason Minerals become quite important.

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