There are different perspectives and weighting approaches when selecting the ReCiPe impact assessment method. In general, ReCiPe provides multiple options based on social perspectives which consist of:
Individualist perspective (I), which is based on the short-term interest, impact types that are undisputed, technological optimism as regards human adaptation;
Hierarchist perspective (H), which is based on the most common policy principles with regards to time-frame and other issues;
Egalitarian perspective (E), which is the most precautionary perspective that takes into account the longest time-frame and impact types that are not yet fully established but for which some indication is available.
In terms of weighting, there are two distinguished options: ReCiPe H/H and ReCiPe H/A. One may then wonder: what are the differences between them?
Weighting factors from ReCiPe 2008 were implemented by PRé to allow single score result. Note that method developers published only normalization factors, therefore, weighting sets from the previous version of ReCiPe are reused here.
These weighting factors are based on panel weighting performed at the damage category (Endpoint) level. A specific weighting set is available for each perspective (H/H, for example). Additionally, there is also H/A which covers the average result for all three perspectives. The hierarchist version of ReCiPe with average weighting is chosen as the default. In general, value choices made in the hierarchist version are scientifically and politically accepted.
The latest version of the ReCiPe 2016 report can be downloaded from this PRé article on ReCiPe.