Dear Open LCA Community,
I seem to have fallen into a deep rabbit hole regarding the use of Exiobase in openLCA and honestly, I’m not sure I’ve resurfaced yet. As many people have already mentioned in this forum, when using Exiobase for GHG calculations in openLCA, the emission factors you get look nothing like the ones you obtain directly from Exiobase exports or from Climatiq. It feels a bit like comparing apples with oranges.
For example I used Air transport services (62)- AT. Therefore I had the following outcomes:
Climatiqu: 1,1042 kgCO2e/EUR
Exiobase export (PXP. M): 1,1042 kgCO2e/EUR
OpenLCA: 0,73432 kgCO2e/EUR
Additionally, I reviewed earlier discussions from users facing similar discrepancies. The common response from OpenLCA representatives or the LCA Community was to update to the newest version of Exiobase available for OpenLCA. This is even referenced in the blog post of Julia Cilleruelo on the 8th of October 2025: Exiobase 3.9.4 now available for openLCA | openLCA.org.
Here is where things become unclear. Following the link in that blog post (see link above), I cannot find any accessible Exiobase database. It appears that openLCA Nexus has removed all Exiobase databases from their platform. Even older tutorials on YouTube Tutorial: How to import a database in openLCA, such as openLCA’s “Tutorial: How to import a database in openLCA”, show Exiobase as an available option (e.g., at minute 4:44). But it is no longer listed and cannot be downloaded.
This leads me to several questions for the community and the openLCA team:
• What is the current status of Exiobase in relation to openLCA?
• Is it still recommended to use Exiobase within openLCA?
• Why were the Exiobase databases removed from the openLCA website?
• How should we interpret the differences between Exiobase exports, Climatiq values, and the results calculated in openLCA?
I would strongly appreciate a clear response, as I work with multiple clients who rely on Exiobase through openLCA and are understandably uncertain about whether their results are adequate or compliant.
Thank you in advance for your support!
