Accounting for Land Clearing Greatly Increases Minerals' Life-cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Life cycle assessments of the minerals used in decarbonization do not consider the greenhouse gas emissions that arise from land use change as mining sites increase to accommodate growing minerals demand. This omission could lead to underestimation of lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle life-cycle GHG emissions. We developed a consequential LCA-inspired model to account for land use change greenhouse gas emissions that predicts per ton mineral life-cycle GHG emissions can increase up to four-fold. Per kWh battery emissions increase by 20-29% for nickel manganese cobalt cathode chemistries. Increases for batteries with LFP cathodes range from 9-16%. This analysis demonstrates how these emissions, previously unaddressed in existing models, could increase the contributions to climate change from mining minerals used in decarbonization technologies.