Status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Africa
Life cycle assessment (LCA) has received attention as a tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of products and services. In the last 20 years, research on the topic has increased, and now more than 25,000 articles are related to LCA in scientific journals databases such as the Scopus database; h...
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doaj-e2baadff2ffb47c5adbe715b0771f9452021-02-06T00:02:09ZengMDPI AGEnvironments2076-32982021-02-018101010.3390/environments8020010Status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in AfricaSelim Karkour0Safa Rachid1Mariem Maaoui2Chia-Chun Lin3Norihiro Itsubo4Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tokyo City University, Tokyo 158-0087, JapanDepartment of Health Sciences, Université Privée de Marrakech, Marrakech 42312, MoroccoHigher Institute of the Sciences and Techniques of Water of Gabes, University of Gabès, Gabes 6029, TunisiaGraduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei City 106032, TaiwanGraduate School of Environmental Studies, Tokyo City University, Tokyo 158-0087, JapanLife cycle assessment (LCA) has received attention as a tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of products and services. In the last 20 years, research on the topic has increased, and now more than 25,000 articles are related to LCA in scientific journals databases such as the Scopus database; however, the concept is relatively new in Africa, where the number of networks has been highlighted to be very low when compared to the other regions. This paper focuses on a review of life cycle assessments conducted in Africa over the last 20 years. It aims at highlighting the current research gap for African LCA. A total of 199 papers were found for the whole continent; this number is lower than that for both Japan and Germany (more than 400 articles each) and nearly equal to developing countries such as Thailand. Agriculture is the sector which received the most attention, representing 53 articles, followed by electricity and energy (60 articles for the two sectors). South Africa (43), Egypt (23), and Tunisia (19) were the countries where most of the research was conducted. Even if the number of articles related to LCA have increased in recent years, many steps still remain. For example, establishing a specific life cycle inventory (LCI) database for African countries or a targeted ideal life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method. Several African key sectors could also be assessed further.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3298/8/2/10life cycle assessmentLCAAfricareview |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Selim Karkour Safa Rachid Mariem Maaoui Chia-Chun Lin Norihiro Itsubo |
spellingShingle |
Selim Karkour Safa Rachid Mariem Maaoui Chia-Chun Lin Norihiro Itsubo Status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Africa Environments life cycle assessment LCA Africa review |
author_facet |
Selim Karkour Safa Rachid Mariem Maaoui Chia-Chun Lin Norihiro Itsubo |
author_sort |
Selim Karkour |
title |
Status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Africa |
title_short |
Status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Africa |
title_full |
Status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Africa |
title_fullStr |
Status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Africa |
title_full_unstemmed |
Status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Africa |
title_sort |
status of life cycle assessment (lca) in africa |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Environments |
issn |
2076-3298 |
publishDate |
2021-02-01 |
description |
Life cycle assessment (LCA) has received attention as a tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of products and services. In the last 20 years, research on the topic has increased, and now more than 25,000 articles are related to LCA in scientific journals databases such as the Scopus database; however, the concept is relatively new in Africa, where the number of networks has been highlighted to be very low when compared to the other regions. This paper focuses on a review of life cycle assessments conducted in Africa over the last 20 years. It aims at highlighting the current research gap for African LCA. A total of 199 papers were found for the whole continent; this number is lower than that for both Japan and Germany (more than 400 articles each) and nearly equal to developing countries such as Thailand. Agriculture is the sector which received the most attention, representing 53 articles, followed by electricity and energy (60 articles for the two sectors). South Africa (43), Egypt (23), and Tunisia (19) were the countries where most of the research was conducted. Even if the number of articles related to LCA have increased in recent years, many steps still remain. For example, establishing a specific life cycle inventory (LCI) database for African countries or a targeted ideal life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method. Several African key sectors could also be assessed further. |
topic |
life cycle assessment LCA Africa review |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3298/8/2/10 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT selimkarkour statusoflifecycleassessmentlcainafrica AT safarachid statusoflifecycleassessmentlcainafrica AT mariemmaaoui statusoflifecycleassessmentlcainafrica AT chiachunlin statusoflifecycleassessmentlcainafrica AT norihiroitsubo statusoflifecycleassessmentlcainafrica |
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