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The need for a quick and radical green transition gives a key role to the financial system as the main source to fund the change. This debate also involves the development of banking regulation tools able to serve the transition. Building on previous works, we propose a method to weight banks’ assets that combines conventional financial risks and environmental risks to calculate prudential capital requirements, and we apply it to the EU Taxonomy’s technical screening criteria to build an environmental risk indicator based on the buildings’ energy consumptions. We show how to calculate the tool endogenously for the taxonomy sections related to buildings (new construction, purchase of building, renovation), thus proving its immediate enforceability, using data from the Lombardy’s housing stocks. Finally, we conduct a stress test for the Italian banking system showing that our proposal would be an effective incentive for the banks to fund the green transition of the construction sector. Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the authors and do not involve the responsibility of the Bank of Italy or RSE.

This study compares the environmental air emissions external costs of electric, gasoline, and diesel private passenger cars during their entire life cycle. The results provide the decision makers with a complementary and unconventional interpretation of the results of an ISO 14040–compliant life cycle assessment (LCA). Indeed, LCA results are often difficult to communicate and to be understood by the general public; on the other hand, an environmental external costs evaluation, where a single monetary value synthesizes the environmental impacts, can be easily understood, communicated to the broad public, and compared with taxes, incentives, and other economic tools. In the present study, we demonstrate that it is possible to carry out the application of a damage factor to the physical inventory flow. The application of this methodology to an Italian context leads to the conclusion that if we compare the 3 types of vehicles—electric, diesel, and gasoline—of an average midsize car (e.g., Volkswagen Golf), the electric version produces less external cost than the traditional internal combustion engine vehicles, considering both air pollution and climate change. The total life cycle air emissions externalities are 12.07 €/1000 km for the electric version, 21.30 €/1000 km for the gasoline vehicle, and 24.25 €/1000 km for the diesel vehicle. At the same time, the electric vehicle produces less external cost related to the air emissions considering both the entire life cycle and only the processes that occur in Italy. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;00:1–11. © 2019 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC), KEY POINTS We demonstrate that it is possible to carry out the application of a monetary country‐dependent damage factor (€/t air emission) to the physical inventory flows of life cycle inventory.We give further information to decision makers, in addition to that of the life cycle impact assessment results.The application to the comparison of passenger cars demonstrates that electric vehicles have less externalities than conventional vehicles.

This study defines a methodology for the development of an economic indicator of natural resource use to be applied in the framework of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to integrate the assessment of the environmental performances of products or processes during their life-cycle. The indicator developed-called Commodity Life Cycle Costing (or C-LCC)-is based on market prices, therefore incorporating information from both the demand and supply sides. Monte Carlo analysis is used to take price volatility into account. Alternative versions of the indicator, based on open-source data or calculated considering European Union’s critical raw materials only, are also developed. The study also provides a comparison between the C-LCC indicator and ReCiPe’s Mineral and Fossil Resource Depletion indicators and applies the proposed methodology to several types of batteries for stationary energy storage.

Electrochemical storage systems are an enabling solution for the electric system ecological transition, allowing a deeper penetration of nonprogrammable renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar energy. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are state of the art energy storage technology. Nevertheless, LIBs show critical problems linked to their production, especially for what concerns energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and rare raw materials use. Finding alternative storage technologies seems crucial for support energy transition, but at the same time, it is important to study their sustainability from the very beginning of their technological development. Using this framework, this paper presents a life cycle based environmental-economic assessment, comparing Na-ion coin cells (Ti1Al1TiC1.85 MXene as anode material) with LIBs. LCA results show that the assessed Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are less environmentally friendly than LIBs, an outcome driven by the SIBs’ lower energy density. However, if results are shown by mass, SIBs can represent potential alternatives to LIBs. On the other hand, the analysis shows that even Na-ions already use less critical resources, both in absolute and in relative values, highlighting the need, at least for the European Union, to find valid alternatives to LIBs if the 2050 decarbonization targets are to be met.

The study presents a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Italian electricity scenarios, devised in the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (INECP). A fully representative LCA of the national electricity system was carried out, taking into consideration a great number of different power plant typologies for current (2016 and 2017) and future (2030) electricity mixes. The study confirms that LCA can be a powerful tool for supporting energy planning and strategies assessment. Indeed the results put in evidence not only the improvement of the environmental profile from the current to the future mix (the impacts decrease from 2016 to 2030 due to the transition towards renewables, mainly wind and photovoltaic), but also underline the difference between two scenarios at 2030 (being the scenario that includes the strategic objectives of the INECP to 2030 the one showing best environmental profile), providing an evaluation of the effect of different energy policies. For example, in the INECP scenario CO2 eq/kWh is 46% lower than current scenario and 37% lower than business as usual scenario for 2030. Moreover, considering different impact categories allowed to identify potential environmental trade-offs. The results suggest also the need of future insight on data related to photovoltaic technologies and materials and their future development.

The Smart City paradigm aims to improve citizens’ quality of life in a scenario where the percentage of people living in urban areas is getting higher and higher. In this paper, a new methodological approach is presented to evaluate to what extent the smart cities’ development pursues sustainable development goals. This methodology is called Smartainability. The Smartainability approach allows to estimate, with qualitative and quantitative indicators, how far smart cities are more sustainable (and smart) in environmental, economical, energetic and social fields,thanks to innovative technologies. Moreover, this estimate can be performed before the technologiesdeployment. The methodology has been tested on the case study of the Expo Milano 2015 site. The implementation on the Expo Milano 2015 site, demonstrates that Smartainability methodology is able to give decision makers useful information on benefits generated by smart solutions deployment. This aspect is due to three relevant issues: benefits are expressed with quantitative indicators; indicators are estimated before technologies or solutions implementation; benefits are connected to technologies or solutions deployment.

The purpose of this article is to realize a review of studies dealing with life cycle assessment of electric grids or their components, in order to put in evidence methodological aspects to be considered with particular attention or requiring further deepening in future researches. After a preliminary bibliographic screening, the review analyses 16 scientific articles. The review considers 16 studies which are all based on a life cycle perspective and pays particular attention on some methodological issues such as: functional unit definition, selection of the impact categories, energy mix taken into consideration in order to quantify the environmental impact associated with grid losses, and end of life of grid components. The review considers, also, the analysed studies’ compliance to ISO 14040 recommendations. All the 16 studies have a good degree of compliance with ISO 14040. Concerning impact categories selection, the review showed a wide set of impacts taken into consideration: some categories are frequently utilized while others are present only in few studies. The analysis puts in evidence that recycling is a crucial aspect, determining a sensible reduction of impacts, which in some cases can compensate for the total impact of the end-of-life stage. Energy losses have a great influence on the overall impact. Neglecting losses in the valuation of networks or resistive components may be too simplifying, if not even misleading. Selecting a suitable functional unit is not an easy task. Beyond the specific outcomes, the analysis puts in evidence two general research needs. First, the definition of functional unit: some authors use a very specific functional unit which allows a correct description of the service provided by an electricity network while others use a functional unit allowing easier comparison with other studies. Second, considering the loss relevance and the infrastructure lifespan, an appropriate evaluation of the electricity mix is crucial.

Biomasses and bio-waste have an important role in decarbonizing the European energy mix, the latter contributing to the transition towards a circular economy. In particular, Refuse Derived Fuel (RFD) - a biofuel obtained from dry residue of waste - appears a really interesting energy option. In this framework this study aims at assessing the environmental profile of electricity generation from RDF in Italy, comparing two different kinds of RDF production and combustion plants. The functional unit is 1 kWh of net electricity from RDF delivered to the grid. Two Italian plants are examined: one located in Ravenna (RDF is produced in a direct flow treatment plant) and the other one in Bergamo (RDF is produced in a unique flow treatment plant and electricity is generated in a cogenerator). Results show that, comparing the plants, it is not possible to identify an option for RDF production or electricity generation characterized by lowest impacts for all the examined impact categories. However, cogeneration process and the avoided burdens due to the valorisation of ferrous metals and dry fractions during RDF production can reduce most of the environmental impacts. A dominance analysis reveals that chimney direct emissions generated during RDF combustion significantly contribute to some impact categories, as well as electricity consumption during RDF production. Furthermore, disposal of incineration wastes is a relevant contributor to human toxicity and freshwater eutrophication. The eco-profile of electricity from RDF is compared with electricity from the Italian grid and from multi-Si PV. The comparison highlights that electricity from RDF performs worse for relevant environmental impact categories such as climate change, human toxicity and photochemical oxidant formation. On the other hand, electricity from RDF performs better than electricity from the grid and from photovoltaic for resource depletion, an impact category of growing importance in the framework of circular economy.

The introduction of stationary storage systems into the Italian electric network is necessary to accommodate the increasing share of energy from non-programmable renewable sources and to reach progressive decarbonization targets. In this framework, a life cycle assessment is a suitable tool to assess environmental impacts during the entire life cycle of stationary storage systems, i.e., their sustainability. A Li-ion battery (lithium–iron–phosphate (LFP), nickel–manganese–cobalt (NMC) 532, and NMC 622) entire life cycle assessment (LCA) based on primary and literature data was performed. The LCA results showed that energy consumption (predominantly during cell production), battery design (particularly binder choice), inventory accuracy, and data quality are key aspects that can strongly affect results. Regarding the battery construction phase, LFP batteries showed better performance than the NMC ones, but when the end-of-life (EoL) stage was included, NMC cell performance became very close to those of LFPs. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses, done using the Monte Carlo methodology, confirmed that the results (except for the freshwater eutrophication indicator) were characterized by a low dispersion and that the energy mix choice, during the different battery life phases, was able to greatly influence the overall impact. The use of primary and updated data related to battery cell production, like those used in the present paper, was necessary to obtain reliable results, and the application to a European production line is an item of novelty of this paper.

In electric and hybrid vehicles Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), batteries play a central role and are in the spotlight of scientific community and public opinion. Automotive batteries constitute, together with the powertrain, the main differences between electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles. For this reason, many decision makers and researchers wondered whether energy and environmental impacts from batteries production, can exceed the benefits generated during the vehicle’s use phase. In this framework, the purpose of the present literature review is to understand how large and variable the main impacts are due to automotive batteries’ life cycle, with particular attention to climate change impacts, and to support researchers with some methodological suggestions in the field of automotive batteries’ LCA. The results show that there is high variability in environmental impact assessment; CO2eq emissions per kWh of battery capacity range from 50 to 313 g CO2eq/kWh. Nevertheless, either using the lower or upper bounds of this range, electric vehicles result less carbon-intensive in their life cycle than corresponding diesel or petrol vehicles.

In the present study the main environmental impacts of different solutions for photovoltaic electricity production in the Italian context are discussed. For solution we mean the combination between the cell technology (CdTe, single or multi-crystalline silicon, etc.) and the installation option (roof, ground, etc.). Environmental impacts are analyzed by means of the Life Cycle Assessment approach according to ISO 14040 standard. The life cycle environmental impacts of the different solutions are, also, compared with the impacts of a natural gas combined cycle plant which is, in Italy, the main technology replaced by new photovoltaic installed power. Results show that there isn’t a photovoltaic solution which is the best for all the impact categories. All the solutions have several environmental advantages compared to fossil fuel technologies, even compared to natural gas combined cycle. The main negative effect is a relevant land use for ground installations, which represent in Italy almost the 40% of the photovoltaic installed power. Moreover criticalities for what concerns human toxicity impact categories have to be underlined. All the photovoltaic solutions, in the case of non-cancer effect, and five out of eleven, in the case of cancer effects show higher impacts than natural gas combined cycle plant.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study is to compare the performances of two passenger cars: an electric vehicle (EV) and an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) paying particular attention to the production of electricity that will charge the EV. Even if many similar comparative life cycle assessments (LCAs) exist (Nordelof et al. J Life Cycle Assess 19(11):1866–18990, 2014), only few have focused their attention on evaluating which is the kind of electricity that will recharge EV batteries (Hawkins et al. Int J Life Cycle Assess 17(8):997–1014, 2012). METHODS: Despite its relevance, many EV LCA studies have used a ready-to-use dataset to evaluate the power mix that supplies electricity to EV. The present paper tries to better define the power mix that recharges EV batteries in Italy according to the national power system and the national electric market rules. A 2013 and a 2030 scenario have been developed in order to understand effects in short and middle term. Life cycle inventory of electricity for EV has been estimated modifying available datasets according to official Italian data on power plants’ efficiency and emission rates. Finally, also for the ICEV use phase, existing dataset have been modified for fuel consumption and regulated emission according to the National Inventory Report results (ISPRA 2014) RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: In both 2013 and 2030 scenarios, the power mix that in Italy supplies energy to EV is dominated by fossil fuel power plants. Nevertheless, due to the fact that more than the 60 % of this energy is produced in efficient combined cycle gas turbine power plants, EV performs better than ICEV in almost all the impact categories considered except for human toxicity and eutrophication, the only two impact categories in which the EV car, mainly due to battery manufactory, presents more relevant potential impacts. ICEV impacts are always dominated by well to wheel phases (use phase and fuel production). EV car and battery manufacturing have higher impacts for all categories than ICEV car manufacturing. CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrates that electricity supplied in Italy to EV today is, and will probably be in 2030, mainly produced by fossil fuel power plants. Nevertheless, the EV proves to be able to reduce, with respect to ICEV, those impacts it is supposed to reduce: air acidification, photochemical oxidant formation, and also greenhouse gases. Trade-offs are, as foreseeable, eutrophication and human toxicity due to EV car and battery manufacturing.

High voltage overhead transmission lines are a type of infrastructure with a major impact on landscape quality. As studies have shown, it is sufficient that a pylon occupies even a modest fraction of a view to cause a marked decline in the aesthetic quality of the landscape. Few studies have tried to make a monetary quantification of the landscape damage caused by high voltage transmission power lines. Those few focused attention on urban areas. In this study, by means of a discrete choice experiment, the willingness to pay of the Italian population to eliminate the landscape impact of high voltage overhead transmission lines has been estimated for the entire national territory with reference to four different landscape contexts (protected mountain and hill areas, protected plain and coastal areas, other non-protected hill and mountain areas, non-protected plain areas). The results obtained have demonstrated that the willingness to pay per kilometre of power line eliminated is higher in the mountain and hill natural parks than in the other areas considered. Using a simulation with a two costs hypothesis, the research shows that the social benefit from burying high voltage power lines would exceed the costs only in limited areas of the country.

Research projects performed by RSE for the Research on the Italian power system have a strong sustainability dimension, according to the public interest nature of the Fund. The development of methods to account for sustainability of smart grids has considered the Key Performance Indicators used in demonstration projects of the European Framework Programme. As far as smart cities are concerned a new metrics called Smartainability has been proposed and applied to the case of the site of the Milan EXPO 2015 Universal Exposition.