diff --git a/paper.md b/paper.md index 9c2e045..84328db 100644 --- a/paper.md +++ b/paper.md @@ -29,15 +29,17 @@ bibliography: paper.bib # Summary -`pathways` is a Python package that characterizes the environmental impacts of products, sectors or transition scenarios -over time using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Compared to traditional scenario results from energy models, `pathways` -provides a more detailed and transparent view of the environmental impacts of a scenario by resolving supply chains -between producers and consumers (as LCA does). Hence, direct and indirect emissions are accounted for, and -double-counting issues are partially resolved. - -`pathways` is initially designed to work with data packages produced by `premise` [@Sacchi:2022], but can be used with -any Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) scenarios and LCA databases. It reads a scenario and a corresponding set of -scenario-based LCA matrices and calculates the environmental impacts of the scenario (or a subset of it) over time. + +`pathways` is a Python package that conducts Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate +the environmental impacts of products, sectors, or transition scenarios over time. +Unlike most energy (ESM) or integrated assessment models (IAM), `pathways` offers +a clearer view on impacts caused by a scenario by considering supply chain relations +between producers and consumers, thereby addressing direct and indirect emissions. +Unlike the reported emissions in ESM and IAM scenarios, which focus primarily on operation, +`pathways` allows reporting the environmental impacts of infrastructure build-up +and decommissioning. Finally, scenarios can be characterized across a wide range of +indicators which are usually not included in ESM or IAM: land use, water consumption, +toxicity impacts, etc. # Statement of need