2026-04-13T05:43:17Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request
oai:recercat.cat:2117/4414222025-09-19T21:27:16Zcom_2072_1033col_2072_452951
RECERCAT author Rebled Carreras, Mireia 2025-09-19T21:27:16Z 2025-09-19T21:27:16Z 2025-06 http://hdl.handle.net/2117/441422 This Final Degree Project presents a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of global greenhouse gas emissions resulting from energy production, specifically focusing on the electricity and heat sectors. The study adopts a cradle-to-gate approach and aims to analyze both direct emissions and those associated with the supply chain, thus offering a more comprehensive view of the environmental impact of the energy sector. The analysis was conducted using the openLCA software across various world regions, including the European Union (EU27), North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Russia. This regional breakdown allows for the identification of significant differences in energy systems, emission profiles, decarbonization dynamics, and political frameworks. The results indicate that electricity and heat generation remain among the main sources of global emissions, with climate change being the dominant environmental impact category in most cases. The use of LCA has demonstrated the importance of incorporating supply chain emissions into environmental analyses. A comparison with data from widely recognized environmental sources revealed that the results obtained in this study are significantly higher, as they account for impacts that are often excluded from conventional inventories. This methodological approach highlights substantial regional differences in both the origin and intensity of emissions, underlining the need to define decarbonization strategies that are adapted to the technological, political, and socio-economic specificities of each context. The conclusions of the project point to the usefulness of LCA as a tool for informing energy policy and environmental planning, promoting more sustainable and efficient transitions within the energy sector. Open Access Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Energies Electricity Heat Greenhouse gases Anàlisi del cicle de vida Electricitat Calor Gasos d'efecte hivernacle Life cycle assessment of global emissions in the electricity and heat sectors: a multiregional analysis Bachelor thesis