How to assess climate change mitigation potential at project-level?

This paper proposes an approach to estimate ex-ante lifetime carbon savings from investment projects. The assessment is based on the use of the Environmental Footprint (EF) method, the EU recommended Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to quantify the environmental impacts of products and organisations.

Lessons learned from this assessment are suggestions to design surveys that will ensure the relevant data is collected to apply the methodology presented. This approach could be used to systematically assess tangible and visible solutions towards the targets of the Green Deal, thus serving as a basis for recommendations of any ex-ante analysis of projects serving towards a net-zero emissions future.

Authors : Valeria De Laurentiis, Andrea Martino Amadei, Esther Sanyé Mengual, Martina Kadunc, Konstantinos Niakaros, Serenella Sala