Should current impacts be weighted differently than impacts harming future generations?
Hellweg, Stefanie1, Hungerbhler, Konrad1, 1 ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, Switzerland ABSTRACT- In LCA, decision makers are often faced with tradeoffs between current and future impacts. It is the goal of this paper to discuss the concept of discounting and its applicability in the context of LCA. To this end, we first review the arguments for discounting in economic sciences. Discounting in economics can be motivated by pure time preference, productivity of capital, diminishing marginal utility of consumption, uncertainties, and changes in the price level. These arguments are discussed in the context of environmental impacts harming future generations. It is concluded that discounting across generations because of pure time preference contradicts fundamental ethical values and should therefore not be applied in LCA. Discounting because of the productivity of capital assumes a relationship between monetary values and environmental impact. If such a relationship is accepted, discounting cou
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