碳足迹核算的国际标准概述与解析

各种层面上的碳足迹核算在全球气候变化控制领域得到了越来越多的关注。但是,这些关于碳足迹核算的相关国际标准繁多,彼此之间的关系复杂,不利于研究领域和工业界对这些标准进行应用与交流,限制了碳足迹核算的发展进度与深度。对目前已有的国际主要碳足迹核算标准及生命周期评价标准进行了整理,梳理出这些国际标准的一些基本特征,绘制了国际标准之间的关系图;并进一步从生命周期评价步骤的角度出发,解析了各种国际标准在这些阶段上的相关内容,以及每一个阶段上各标准相关规定中的不同特点及逻辑关系。对促进我国碳足迹核算相关研究与实践工作具有一定的理论与现实参考意义。

Summary and analysis of international standards on carbon footprint accounting

As the product carbon footprint is becoming the briefest information of environmentally friendly products, enterprises in 12 countries and regions around the world have already been required to implement carbon labeling system in the form of legislation currently. Carbon label, as an identification system of greenhouse gases emissions caused in the life cycle of product or service, will play a significant role in the reduction of carbon emissions. The calculation of product carbon footprint involves a variety of levels, including the national level, the organization level, the product level, and the product carbon footprint has become one of the research hotspots in the field of global climate change control. As to accounting for the carbon footprint, many countries, regions and organizations are gradually developing their own standards, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the national level, the International Organization for Standardized (ISO) for the corporate and product level, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) jointly for the corporate and product level, the British Standards Institution (BSI) for the product level, etc. The standards based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are as follows: the ISO released the basic LCA standards, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (U.S) released specific LCA standards about the database construction and the analysis of Life Cycle Inventory. As listed above, there are many relevant international standards on carbon footprint accounting, and the relationships among them are complex. However, due to the wide range of relevant international standards on carbon footprint accounting and the complexity of the relationship among these standards, the application and exchanges of these standards are limited in the research and industrial communities. Therefore, this paper sorts and analyses the international standards on carbon footprint accounting. Firstly, through the review of carbon footprint accounting standards and life cycle assessment standards, the basic characteristics of the relevant international standards were outlined and the relatsionship among the international standards was drawn in a diagram. Then, various international standards'' provisions were resolved from the point of view of the contents of the various stages of life cycle assessment framework, and it was specific to each point of the various standards'' provisions of the different characteristics and logical relations. Finally, the significance of carbon footprint accounting from different levels, the basic characteristics and the relationship among the relevant international standards and the relevant international standards based on the life cycle phases were analyzed. It is of great significance for providing references in research and practice of carbon footprint accounting, providing methodological support for our carbon footprint accounting, and advancing the research process of carbon footprint accounting in China.