LCA in Mining - Legal and International Outlook 2025

This report is the result of a project: “LCA in Mining – Legal and International Outlook”, which has been financed as a strategic project by the Swedish Innovation Program Swedish Mining Innovation. The work has been performed by RISE during the spring 2025. Mainly through literature studies, a selection of EU’s current and proposed legislations has been reviewed regarding their relevance for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the mining and extraction industry. The project has also included an international outlook to find out what is going on in this area in countries outside the EU. 19 EU legislations and initiatives and 7 countries outside the EU have been studied. The conclusions which may be drawn are: • There is a lot going on in the area of legislation within the EU which involve LCA and the mining industry, and it is so much that this report may only be seen as a snapshot taken in the spring 2025. • When it comes to legislations, the EU has the pole position and other countries follow what happens here. • There are several legislations which have a strong connection to LCA and the mining industry and two examples are: The Critical Raw Material Act (CRMA) and the Battery Regulation. • There are legislations which don’t specifically mention LCA but require results and information which may be obtained through an LCA. Words which may be used are carbon footprint, environmental impact or due diligence. • To lessen the administrative burden of the necessary LCA-work to be done by companies, it would be good if the requirements for how the LCA shall be performed may be harmonised between legislations. The report is written in both Swedish and English.