|
6E - Life cycle management (MOP/205) Decision Support Tools for Environmental Policy Decisions and their Relevance to Life Cycle Assessment. Elghali, Lucia1, Clift, Roland2, 1 TRL Limited, Crowthorne, Berkshire, UK2 University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK ABSTRACT- Complex decision contexts involving multiple (and often competing) policy objectives, such as those encountered in creating public policies for sustainable development, are common in both strategic and operational decisions. Difficulties arise in applying sustainable development principles to define and choose "the best" product, policy or solution. This occurs because of the need to address such multiple objectives and to address the concerns of diverse stakeholders. It has also been observed that judgement about what does or does not constitute progress towards sustainable development is guided by and interpreted according to moral values (or worldview) where factual information is associated with a high degree of uncertainty. A critical review of recent developments in the understanding of appropriate decision support for complex problems with inherent uncertainty is presented, and discusses their significance for the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to support such public policy decisions. Structuring methods for strategic decision support are shown to provide a potentially useful conceptual framework for adapting LCA to support policy decision processes. In particular, the use of LCA within a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework through the process of decision conferencing is discussed as a potentially useful development. However, this requires a more flexible approach to LCA than is conventional, not least in adapting the Impact Assessment phase to the decision context rather than using a standard set of prescribed impact categories. Some implications of this for both technical practice and the deployment of LCA are explored. Key words: decision-making, complexity, LCA, public policy |
