RTRI REPORT Oct. 2002
REVIEW

Global Environmental Issues and Life Cycle Assessment

Taro TSUJIMURA


  It is internationally recognized that global environmental issues, which are the results of the activities of mankind, have become increasingly serious. But the countermeasures against these issues haven't been performed satisfactory, because of the conflicts between national interests. In Japan, the law for switching to the social system of the feedback type is being prepared. To decrease environmental loads, it is required to recognize the present conditions, establish concrete measures and quantitatively evaluate the achievement. This paper explains an outline of environment issues and the trend of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) from the viewpoint of railroads as an evaluation method for environmental loads.


* Full papers of RTRI Report are written in Japanese.

Copyright (c) 2002 Railway Technical Research Institute