Two aspects were rated as critical regarding the internalisation
of environmental damages. Firstly, some Conventional and
Environmental LCCs included anticipated transfers but used different
approaches. For example, Groot et al. (2013) accounted for an
imaginary CO2 tax (without reporting the value), Kim et al.
(2011) converted the GHG reduction into a monetary value based
on principles set out in the Clean Development Mechanism
(CDM) whereas Vinyes et al. (2012) and Zhang (2013), on the other
hand, used costs for mitigating CO2 emissions according to the
international and national CO2 markets, respectively. These are
all valid approaches if transparently reported, but the results were
affected by the assumption and valuation principles applied.
Secondly, while resource market prices to some extent also represent
resource scarcity, it may be unclear how large a fraction of the
price is related to scarcity itself, i.e. the so-called resource rent
(Carlsson Reich, 2005). It is considered likely that current market
prices depend more on short-term resource availability than on
long-term abiotic resource depletion (scarcity), and as a result
market prices might not account fully for associated future
damages caused by current resource consumption/savings. In an
Environmental LCC, short- and long-term resource aspects are
included either in the economic part (by market price) or in the
environmental part (by resource depletion impact categories
included in the LCA). In a Societal LCC, future damages remain
unassessed until empirical studies estimate externality costs
involved in resource depletion. The same principle applies to many
environmental emissions whose accounting prices have not been
estimated yet