Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
boundary are considered, then many of the factors which give relevance to
the reference system would not be included, such as transport processes
taking place abroad. Figure 8.6 shows an example in which a limited
geographical boundary was chosen for the comparison between RME and
diesel.
In this case, rape seed is cultivated in Germany instead of wheat, as
in example 2 above. According to the requirements of an LCA all the
elements shown here would have to be considered. If however only the
geographical boundary of Germany would be considered, as represented by
the shaded box, those parts of the production system which take place
abroad would be ignored. This would lead to different results, as shown in
Figure 8.7.
From this it becomes clear that considering only a limited
geographical boundary rather than the global situation can lead to
significantly different results. In example 5 for instance RME shows much
greater advantages if the effects only arising within Germany are
considered, mainly because of the impacts of wheat cultivation, which in
the global scenario would be 'cancelled out' in the calculation due to wheat
cultivation overseas.
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