Construction of a parameterized analytical model for full life-cycle emissions assessment in climate comparison of energy solutions for transport systems
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15587/1729-4061.2026.358472Keywords:
Well-to-Wheel (WTW), transport decarbonization, life-cycle emissions, decarbonization investment asymmetry, transport technologiesAbstract
This study investigates the process of assessing the climate efficiency of alternative energy solutions in transport systems within the full life-cycle Well-to-Wheel (WTW) approach.
The task addressed relates to the methodological inconsistency of climate comparison results when applying the Tank-to-Wheel (TTW) approach, which considers only operational emissions and neglects upstream components associated with the production and supply of energy resources. This leads to a systemic gap between estimated and actual full life-cycle climate effects of energy alternatives.
A parameterized analytical model of climate comparability, the WTW Climate Comparability Model (WTW-CCM), has been built to formalize the dependence of full life-cycle emissions on energy chain parameters. The structure of full life-cycle emissions is substantiated as the sum of Well-to-Tank, Tank-to-Wheel, and specific components. The model is aligned with international methodological frameworks EN 16258, the GLEC Framework, and ISO 14083.
The climate efficiency of energy solutions has been shown to be parameter-dependent and determined by the carbon intensity of the energy system and methane slip emissions. A threshold criterion in the form of a critical grid carbon intensity has been derived. It is demonstrated that electric solutions become climate-efficient only under specific parametric conditions.
The possibility of inversion of climate efficiency of alternatives has been demonstrated. The phenomenon of decarbonization investment asymmetry has been formalized; the DIAI index has been proposed for the quantitative assessment of distortions in investment signals. It was substantiated that different assessment boundaries (TTW and WTW) lead to the formation of incommensurable investment priorities.
The practical significance includes the application of the model for substantiating managerial and investment decisions in transport decarbonization
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