Guidance/Guidelines and their Features on Assessing the Contribution of Products to Avoided Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Abstract

It is crucial to spread the products that reduce Greenhouse Gas （GHG） emissions to achieve the ambitious target towards the decarbonized society. Life Cycle Assessment （LCA） can support the obtaining of a market for such products by quantifying the avoided GHG emissions through the life cycle. At the same time, there are some additional points to be noted when assessing a product's contribution to the reduced GHG emission in society. Several guidance and guidelines summarize the principles, requirements, and recommendations for assessing the contribution to avoided GHG emissions. In this article, we introduce the existing relevant guidance and guidelines published by different entities and some international standards related to the assessment of the contribution of products and/or projects to avoided emissions. We summarize the characteristic points of them from some aspects （targets of the assessment, application of LCA, calculation approaches, specific features）, which will support the practitioners to select the appropriate references according to the scope of their assessment.