Normalisation figures for environmental life-cycle assessment: The Netherlands (1997/1998), Western Europe (1995) and the world (1990 and 1995)

Normalisation provides a measure of the relative contribution from a product system to one or more environmental problems. Total yearly emissions for a reference year in a reference region are normally used to calculate normalisation figures. This paper provides up-to-date normalisation figures for the Netherlands in 1997/1998, Western Europe in 1995 and the world in 1990 and 1995. Impact categories considered were depletion of abiotic resources, land competition, global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical ozone formation, radiation and toxicity. In all cases, a limited set of emissions or extractions are dominant contributors to the normalisation scores. Although much effort was spent on collecting emissions data and characterisation factors, particularly normalisation scores for radiation and toxicity remain considerably uncertain.