Emission Omissions in Life-cycle Assessments May Misdirect Efforts to Reduce GHGs

The document highlights how current life-cycle assessments (LCAs) for building materials in Canada may misdirect decarbonization efforts due to data gaps and a lack of transparency. It specifically notes that LCAs often ignore biogenic carbon emissions from wood products, which can account for up to 72% of their total lifecycle emissions, potentially overstating the carbon advantage of wood over materials like concrete and steel. The briefing recommends that the federal government invest in regionalized national life-cycle inventories and that policymakers prioritize energy efficiency, building durability, and material efficiency over a narrow focus on embodied emissions.

• Life-cycle assessments (LCAs) in the built environment can produce misleading or incorrect results because of significant gaps in available data and a failure to disclose assumptions and uncertainties that impact outcomes.
• LCAs for wood building products frequently omit 'biogenic carbon' emissions—including soil disturbance and losses from forest conversion or poor reforestation—which can constitute up to 72% of the product's total lifecycle emissions. This omission challenges the common belief that wood is lower carbon than steel or concrete.
• Current LCAs often overlook regional variability in GHG emissions related to raw material extraction, production intensity, and end-of-life disposal, relying instead on average global, continental, or national data.
• By ignoring operational stage emissions and other building system impacts, some LCAs may exaggerate the importance of embodied emissions, leading to narrow decision-making that misses broader GHG reduction opportunities.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2024). Emission Omissions in Life-cycle Assessments May Misdirect Efforts to Reduce GHGs. https://www.iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/emission-omissions-backgrounder-en_0.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Emission Omissions in Life-cycle Assessments May Misdirect Efforts to Reduce GHGs. 2024. https://www.iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/emission-omissions-backgrounder-en_0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Emission Omissions in Life-cycle Assessments May Misdirect Efforts to Reduce GHGs |date=May 2024 |url=https://www.iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/emission-omissions-backgrounder-en_0.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2024emission, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Emission Omissions in Life-cycle Assessments May Misdirect Efforts to Reduce GHGs}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2024}, month = may, url = {https://www.iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/emission-omissions-backgrounder-en_0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }