Consequential life cycle assessment of European livestock systems: current practices, limitations, and priorities

Abstract A systems-level understanding of livestock production and its environmental consequences is essential for informing sustainability transitions and evidence-based policy in Europe. While life cycle assessment (LCA) is widely applied in this context, the use of consequential LCA (CLCA), which aims to capture market-mediated and structural system responses, remains comparatively limited. This study provides a critical synthesis of CLCA applications in European livestock systems through a PRISMA-guided systematic literature review complemented by an expert workshop. Twenty-three studies met the inclusion criteria, spanning multiple livestock groups, regions, and modelling approaches. Scenario development was dominated by technical or management-oriented adjustments, with limited use of optimisation-based, narrative, or policy-driven frameworks capable of exploring transformative system changes. Inventory construction typically relied on Ecoinvent, supplemented where necessary by experimental datasets, expert elicitation, survey data, or outputs from economic models. Most studies focused on midpoint indicators, and although uncertainty analysis was commonly included, its implementation was inconsistent across studies. Overall, most of the reviewed CLCA applications remain focused on incremental improvements within existing systems, limiting their ability to assess the consequences of more profound system transitions. Key limitations include both methodological challenges (particularly in scenario formulation and the representation of system-wide responses) and data gaps, notably the limited availability of regionally specific inventory data for marginal processes and endpoint characterisation factors. We recommend that future CLCAs adopt more structured and forward-looking scenario development approaches, strengthen inventory construction through updated and localised datasets, and consider the incorporation of both midpoint and endpoint indicators, while clearly acknowledging the limitations of both approaches. In addition, the systematic application of sensitivity and scenario-based uncertainty analysis is essential for assessing robustness. Addressing these practical and methodological dimensions will enhance the contribution of CLCA to analysing sustainability transitions of European livestock systems.