Search Results

Reducing the environmental impact of transport on Climate Change is an important policy target and the European Union has been spearheading legislation in this area. However, the EU has chosen, until now, to focus on tailpipe emissions, which only represent the impact of the use phase of the vehicle and leave aside the impacts of material production and car manufacturing as well as the end of life. Anyway, the corresponding regulations have given the direction for car manufacturer to focus on lightweighting, which is an important part of the solution. It is incomplete, however, as a more holistic approach encompassing all the phases of the Life of a vehicle ought to be taken on board, which is exactly what a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is meant to do. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the advantages and the limitations of LCA in the transport sector.