Eurofer calls on EU to recognize the importance of life cycle assessments (LCA) to determine the environmental footprint of products or materials.
The European Parliament as well as Environment Council are currently considering amendments to the regulation on CO2 emissions from new passenger cars.
EU legislation at present focuses only on the use phase of the vehicle and on the emissions arising from burning fossil fuels during the life of vehicle. Emissions in the production phase or benefits from recycling are not covered in this ‘tailpipe approach’.
LCA, by contrast, starts evaluation with the extraction of the raw materials at the very beginning of the product-life and ends with recycling or depositing at the end of the cycle. LCA also can avoid mistakes in material selection and thus strengthen the position of the use of steel in vehicle production.
Together with WorldAutoSteel – the World Steels Association’s automotive group − Eurofer has developed a position paper to communicate LCA among decision makers.
Contact: [email protected] www.worldautosteel.org