Green finance and environmental life cycle assessment
Description
This Mendeley Data deposit contains the dataset extracted from a literature review on the integration of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with green/sustainable finance, focusing on how environmental results are translated into metrics, rules, and financial decision mechanisms. The collection includes structured records by study (IDs) containing: characterization of the research design (empirical/modeling/conceptual), analysis scale (project, asset, portfolio, market), type of financial instrument/arrangement (e.g., green corporate bonds, carbon credits and carbon markets, regulatory metrics such as the Green Asset Ratio, project finance under the Equator Principles, and fintech-enabled mechanisms such as tokenization/crowdfunding), and the role played by LCA in the instrument’s governance (eligibility, pricing, risk management, monitoring, and verification). For each study, core LCA elements were coded: functional unit (when available), system boundaries (e.g., cradle-to-gate, cradle-to-grave, phase-specific cut-offs), main impact categories (e.g., climate/GWP, eutrophication, toxicity, water use, and resource depletion), databases and impact methods (when reported), and the mode of integration with economic variables (NPV/IRR, climate cost-effectiveness, avoided impact per unit of capital, conversion into credits/carbon price signals, and price-adjustment coefficients). Recurrent findings and constraints were also documented, including: sensitivity to scenarios and baseline choices, limited methodological standardization and project-level disclosure in post-issuance reporting, greenwashing risks linked to proprietary methodologies, and information asymmetries in cross-border contexts with diverging regulatory regimes. In addition, the deposit includes a similarity-analysis output (graph) and an associated interpretive text, highlighting the centrality of the “environmental–impact–assessment” core and two dominant LCA to finance translation regimes: (I) regulatory/classification pathways (taxonomies and indicators) and (II) market/pricing pathways (credits, trading, and carbon price signals). These data can be reused for meta-syntheses, instrument-by-instrument comparative analyses, and methodological advances in MRV and the standardization of green finance metrics.
Files
Steps to reproduce
Apply the search terms below to the Scopus and Web of Science databases: Green finance: Bond, bond issuance, bond market, corporate green bond, corporate green bond issuance, environmental finance, green bond standard, green bond market, green bond financing, green bond index, green bond issuance, green bond issue, green bond issuer, green bonds issuance, green bonds market, green economic growth, green economy, green finance, green finance initiative, green finance instrument, green finance market, green finance product, green finance policy, green financial product, green financial system, green financing, green fund, green bond, green credit, green economic development, green finance, development, green finance index, green finance practice, green finance strategy. Environmental life cycle assessment: life cycle assessment, life cycle sustainability assessment, life cycle thinking, gate life cycle assessment, grave life cycle assessment, assessment method, life cycle phase, comparative life cycle assessment, attributional life cycle assessment, lifecycle, life cycle impact assessment, life cycle assessment tool, life cycle impact assessment method, lca methodology, whole life cycle, prospective life cycle assessment, life cycle inventory, life cycle assessment analysis, consequential life cycle assessment, life cycle stage, life cycle assessment approach, life cycle assessment model, comprehensive life cycle assessment, entire life cycle, life cycle inventory data, lca study, life cycle assessment methodology, life cycle environmental impact, lifecycle assessment, lca model, life cycle approach, lca analysis, lca approach, life cycle assessment method, environmental life cycle assessment, life cycle perspective, life cycle assessment study e life cycle assessment result. With the inclusion criteria of be included that present conceptual, methodological, or empirical models related to the use of sustainable financial instruments (such as green bonds, climate funds, or responsible investment mechanisms) associated with the measurement of environmental, social, and economic impacts throughout the life cycle.