A global consensus life cycle impact assessment method - GLAM: impacts on ecosystem quality

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to report and document the models integrated into the ecosystem quality part of the first life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) version of the GLAM (Global Guidance for Life Cycle Impact Assessment Indicators and Methods) project. The focus is on endpoint models, and all included models provide characterization factors related to the loss of species richness, indicated in potentially disappeared fraction of species (PDF·yr). Methods: In the scoping phase eight impact categories have been identified as being of relevance and provided recent methodological developments that were mature enough to be included in the consensus model within GLAM. These include ecotoxicity, land use, water consumption, eutrophication (individually for marine and freshwater ecosystems), aquatic microplastic pollution, terrestrial acidification and climate change (individual models for terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems). Apart from harmonizing and developing these models, aspects of vulnerability have been included by further developing and applying the global extinction probability (GEP) concept. Results and discussion: The eight impact categories provide in total more than 500 000 characterization factors (CFs) at country and global scale for the GLAM research version 1.1.2025.11, representing potential global species loss. Five of the impact categories (land use, water consumption, marine and freshwater eutrophication and terrestrial acidification) provide values at country levels as well as global averages. The other three (ecotoxicity, climate change and aquatic microplastics pollution) provide global CFs only. Climate change and marine eutrophication provide average CFs only, terrestrial acidification only marginal while all the others provide average and marginal CFs. Conclusions: The covered impact categories for the first time consistently represent potential global species losses in terms of PDF.