Émissions manquantes dans les analyses du cycle de vie

The document highlights how current life cycle assessments (LCA) in the Canadian built environment can mislead decision-makers 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 a product's total life cycle emissions—and overlook regional variations in material production and disposal. The briefing recommends that the federal government invest in updated regional and national LCA inventories and prioritizes energy efficiency and material longevity as the primary drivers for decarbonizing buildings.

• Life cycle assessments (LCA) in the built environment can produce misleading or incorrect results, potentially increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rather than reducing them. This is primarily caused by significant gaps in available data and the failure to disclose assumptions and uncertainties that impact results.
• Current LCAs frequently fail to account for biogenic carbon emissions during the extraction and end-of-life phases of wood products. These emissions, which include soil disturbances and the conversion of old-growth forests to less productive secondary forests, can represent up to 72% of a wood product's total life cycle emissions, challenging the assumption that wood is lower-carbon than concrete or steel.
• LCAs often ignore significant regional variability in GHG emissions, relying instead on national, continental, or global averages. This overlooks differences in raw material extraction, production carbon intensity, and end-of-life disposal conditions.
• Existing LCA models may misrepresent embodied emissions by ignoring other significant life cycle contributions, such as operational emissions and the impact on other building systems, leading to overly narrow decision-making.
• While embodied emissions are important, the greatest potential for decarbonizing the built environment lies in improving energy efficiency and constructing low-energy or net-zero energy buildings.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (n.d.). Émissions manquantes dans les analyses du cycle de vie. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/emission-omissions-backgrounder-fr_0.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Émissions manquantes dans les analyses du cycle de vie. n.d. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/emission-omissions-backgrounder-fr_0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Émissions manquantes dans les analyses du cycle de vie |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/emission-omissions-backgrounder-fr_0.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopmentndmissions, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Émissions manquantes dans les analyses du cycle de vie}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/emission-omissions-backgrounder-fr_0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }