The Significance of Scope 3 GHG Emissions in Construction Projects in Korea: Using EIA and LCA

Kyeong-Tae Kim,Ik Kim

doi:10.3390/cli9020033

Abstract

In Korea, a greenhouse gas (GHG) environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been conducting since 2012, which sets the evaluation procedures and methods for GHG items during the EIA. However, the current EIA on GHG emissions can support wrong decision-making because the evaluation does not consider Scope 3 GHG emissions. Accordingly, this study proposed the life cycle EIA (LCEIA) method to identify changes in GHG emissions that need to be managed by considering Scope 3 GHG emissions in construction projects. The LCEIA method incorporates life cycle CO2 (LCCO2) including Scope 1, Scope, and Scope 3 GHG emissions using the concept of life cycle assessment (LCA) into the scoping step of the EIA process. The case study was conducted using existing EIA on GHG emission and LCEIA methodology for a development project in Gwangyang City. Scenario 1 is defined as an approach that calculates GHG emissions using the existing EIA method, and scenario 2 is also defined as a process using the LCEIA method. Results reveal that Scenario 2, including Scope 3 GHG emissions, had 46.4−51.2% more GHG emissions than Scenario 1. Sensitivity analysis for electricity and liquefied natural gas (LNG) density was also performed. Although the change in the carbon emission factor of electricity had a slightly sensitive effect on the research results, the LNG density was found to be less sensitive. This study believes the importance of switching to an EIA reflecting life cycle carbon dioxide (LCCO2) to calculate the exact amount of GHG emissions for construction work.

Highlights

Climate change is a huge environmental problem that humanity will face over the decade [1]
Since 2012, the Korea Ministry of Environment has been conducting separate assessments by adding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions items to strategic environmental impact assessment (EIA) under the Environmental Impact Assessment Act to reduce GHG emissions caused by development projects [6]
Rybaczewska-Blazejowska and Palekhov (2018) proposed the EIA-life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology that incorporates LCA into the EIA method to evaluate the environmental impacts from the industrial project

Summary

Introduction

Climate change is a huge environmental problem that humanity will face over the decade [1]. In the Republic of Korea, policies are administered by the public sector, such as the central and local government, to calculate and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from several sources. EIA is a policy and management tool for both planning and decision-making It assists to identify, predict, and evaluate the foreseeable environmental consequences of proposed development projects, plans, and policies [7]. The EIA policy was first introduced in 1969 based on the National Environmental Policy Act of the United States. It has been implemented based on the Environmental Conservation Act in Korea since 1981 [7]

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