On the interpretation of biogenic carbon flows in livestock LCAs: A comment on Blignaut et al. (2026)
Other text in scientific journal, 2026
Blignaut et al. (2026) address an important and timely issue: how biogenic carbon flows are treated in life cycle assessments (LCA) of livestock-based fibre systems. Their effort to explicitly map carbon flows through a wool production system provides a clear illustration of carbon movements within the system. However, the paper interprets several biogenic carbon flows as carbon removals, which is not supported by standard LCA practice and is inconsistent with established GHG accounting frameworks.
Author
Andre M. Mazzetto
New Zealand Bioecon Sci Inst
Aaron T. Simmons
Government of New South Wales
Beverley Henry
Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Christophe d'Abbadie
Government of New South Wales
David Styles
National University of Ireland Galway
Goran Berndes
Maartje Sevenster
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
Matthew T. Harrison
University of Tasmania
Richard Eckard
University of Melbourne
Warwick B. Badgery
NSW Department of Primary Industries
Annette Cowie
NSW Department of Primary Industries
Agricultural Systems
0308-521X (ISSN) 1873-2267 (eISSN)
Vol. 235 104721Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Other Environmental Engineering
DOI
10.1016/j.agsy.2026.104721