Non-renewable Resources for the Energiewende – A Social Life Cycle Analysis

The Rio +20 conference in 2012 confirmed not only the sustainability concept as the new development goal but also introduced the green economy as its implementation strategy and the life cycle assessment (LCA) as one of its analysis tools to reveal the current production and consumption patterns which affect human well-being. Human well-being therefore has to be defined. We describe human well-being using the capability approach of Amartya Sen. Current production and consumption patterns have an influence on human well-being, on people's functioning and capabilities. Consumption patterns alter and the energy sector is in Germany at the centre of that process. Renewable energy technologies are seen as instruments for a transformation of the energy system, causing non-renewable (mineral) resources such as the rare earth elements to be of high significance for the transformation. To analyse social conditions (human well-being) throughout the life cycle of the product we focused on five major functionings (welfare basis, health & safety, social participation, democracy & freedom, decent life) and assigned 24 impact issues to them to enable an assessment of the social effects of the rare earth production along the whole process chain. The analysis of social impacts of the production of the rare earth elements using S-LCA is developed to illustrate the connection between the S-LCA and the capability approach – Amartya Sen's concept of human well-being.