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30th LCA Discussion Forum
Life cycle approaches applied on biofuels

Tuesday 28th November 2006, 9:00 - 17:00h, Berne-Ittigen, UVEK-Verwaltungszentrum

We are pleased to invite you to the 30th Discussion Forum on Life Cycle Assessment.
Today, transportation almost entirely relies on oil-based fuels and is responsible for about 30% of the world's fossil fuel consumption. According to the principles of sustainability, a modern society should preserve non-renewable energy sources and replace them by renewable energy. The depletion of fossil energy reserves and the associated environmental impacts are the two main reasons leading to consider alternative fuels for transportation. Fuels derived from biomass, also referred to as biofu-els, are not only potentially renewable, but are also sufficiently similar to fossil fuels to provide for direct substitution. Also practically, it seems to be a promising alternative to fossil fuels in the short term. But, what are the environmental impacts of using biofuels on a large scale?

The goal of this one-day forum is to discuss the present status of life cycle assessment with regard to biofuels. It aims to inform practitioners from Switzerland and surrounding countries about the follow-ing issues:

·    Short introduction to LCA methodology.
·    Are organic agricultural products a basis for environmentally friendly biofuels, or which other possibilities exist to minimize the environmental impacts in the agricultural production stage?
·    Which approaches exist to investigate the environmental impacts of future production chains?
·    What are the current results of LCA studies of biofuels and what are reasons for diverging re-sults? Presentation of current research works in Switzerland with regards to LCA of biofuels (ex-tension of the ecoinvent database)
·    What are competitive uses of biomass resources, e.g. for materials, and how can the best use op-tions for a biomass resource be assessed in LCA?
·    Are imported biofuels a proper way to reduce the environmental impacts due to fuel consumption in Switzerland?
·    What are the consequences for the national fuel policy that can be derived from the LCA results?

Proposals for additional short presentations (5 to 10 min, 3 to 6 slides, depending on the number of submitted presentations) are welcome.
The forum will be held in German. Practitioners from industry, representatives from authorities and NGOs, and polititians are welcomed as well as LCA experts. We are persuaded that this forum will be of interest to all actors involved in producing, marketing and using of biofuels and we look forward to welcome you in Berne-Ittigen.

Current information will be available on http://www.esu-services.ch/bioenergy.htm.

Please find more information on the 30th LCA Discussion Forum in the attached invitation. The forum will be held in German with one workshop in French.Please send your application to the following contact: [log in to unmask]

Proposal for additional short presentation (5-10 min) are appreciated.

We are looking forward to welcome you in Berne.

Best regards,

Niels Jungbluth, ESU-services, Uster (project leader of the Swiss “Life Cycle Assessment of bioenergy” project)

Bruno Guggisberg, Bundesamt für Energie

Current information will be available on http://www.esu-services.ch/bioenergy.htm.