Introduction & literature review. Abiotic resources are extensively used in industrialised societies to deliver multiple services that contribute to human wellbeing. Their increased extraction and use can potentially reduce their accessibility, increase competition among users and ultimately lead to a deficit of those services. Life cycle assessment is a relevant tool to assess the potential damages of dissipating natural resources. Building on the general consensus recommending evaluating the damages on the instrumental value of resources to humans in order to assess the consequences of ressources dissipation, this research work proposes a novel conceptual framework to assess the potential loss of services provided by abiotic resources, which when facing unmet demand, can lead to a deficit to human users and have consequences on human wellbeing. Results.A framework is proposed to describe the mechanisms that link human intervention on the resources in the accessible stock to competition among users. Users facing the deficit of resource services are assumed to have to pay to recover the services, using backup technologies. The mechanisms that are proposed to be characterized are dissipation and degradation. Data needed to later operationalize the framework for abiotic resources are identified. It also proposes a framework at the life cycle inventory level to harmonize life cycle inventories with the current impact assessment framework to fully characterize impacts on resource services. It regards ensuring mass balances of elements between inputs and outputs of life cycle inventory datasets as well as including the functionality of resource flows. Discussion and Conclusions.The framework provides recommendations for the development of operational life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods for resource services deficit assessment. It establishes the impact pathway to damage on the area of protection "Resource Services", data needed to feed the model and recommendations to improve the current state of life cycle inventories to be harmonized with the LCIA framework.

Worldwide electricity consumption increases by 2.6% each year. Greenhouse gas emissions due to electricity production raise by 2.1% per year on average. The development of efficient low-carbon-footprint renewable energy systems is urgently needed. CPVMatch investigates the feasibility of mirror or lens-based High Concentration Photovoltaic (HCPV) systems. Thanks to innovative four junction solar cells, new glass coatings, Position Sensitive Detectors (PSD), and DC/DC converters, it is possible to reach concentration levels higher than 800× and a module efficiency between 36.7% and 41.6%. From a circular economy's standpoint, the use of concentration technologies lowers the need in active material, increases recyclability, and reduces the risk of material contamination. By using the Life Cycle Assessment method, it is demonstrated that HCPV presents a carbon footprint ranking between 16.4 and 18.4 g CO 2 -eq/kWh. A comparison with other energy means for 16 impact categories including primary energy demand and particle emissions points out that the environmental footprint of HCPV is typically 50 to 100 times lower than fossil fuels footprint. HCPV's footprint is also three times lower than that of crystalline photovoltaic solutions and is close to the environmental performance of wind power and hydropower.mounted with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) Fresnel lenses on modules. Raw material extraction and component manufacturing, considering steel and aluminum, contributed the most to the impact. The 'Apollon CPV module' LCA evaluation revealed that aluminum and electronic components were the most impacting processes [29]. The carbon footprint of the system mounted on a two-axis tracker in Catania was estimated at 20 g CO 2 -eq/kWh.De Wild-Scholten [30] determined greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for a SolarTec based on a Fresnel lens and CPower mounted with a mirror that concentrates the light on monocrystalline silicon and III-V solar cells. They reported GHG emissions of 35 g CO 2 -eq/kWh for a CPower module on an optimized tracker operating in Catania, Sicily. However, in the same study and under the same conditions, a SolarTec module presents an actual performance of 42 g CO 2 -eq/kWh.The nature of the consumed electricity mix for HCPV module manufacturing highly influences the climate change impact. Fthenakis V.M. [31] reported 27 g CO 2 -eq/kWh over a 30 year operation for the Ammonix 7700 26-kW HCPV system equipped with single-crystal Si cells installed in Phoenix, AZ, USA. The tracker and the module accounted for the largest part of its life cycle energy use and emissions. A previous study in 2007 [32] made very similar conclusions. However, it reported 38 g CO 2 -eq/kWh for the 24 kW-Ammonix concentrator PV system with single-crystal Si cells. Also, a study presenting FLATCON results, with a HCPV system, also presented similar results with 30 CO 2 -eq/kWh [33].A novel wafer-bonded four-junction solar cell was developed for better spectral matching by European research institutes and industrial partners using ne...