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Launched in 2010 by the law known as the "Grenelle II Law" and truly introduced in 2011 by decree n°2011-829 of July 11, 2011, the carrying out of greenhouse gas assessments has just been amended by regulation (decree of December 24, 2015 and orders of January 25, 2016). This is therefore an opportunity to take stock of the regulations applicable to date.
Organizations involved in greenhouse gas assessments
The greenhouse gas balance sheet covers :
- Companies(1) with over 500 employees(2) in mainland France (250 employees in French overseas departments and territories),
- Local authorities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, as well as other legal entities under public law employing more than 250 people.
(1) Notion of company
The text explicitly refers to legal entities. This means that if a company has several establishments, it will have to add up the headcount of the various establishments located in France.
Notion of company group
Since January1, 2016 (amendment made by Decree no. 2015-1738 of December 24, 2015), company groups have been given the option of drawing up a consolidated GHG balance sheet.
Article R. 229-46 of the Environment Code now specifies that group committees (= a group formed by a company called the dominant company, whose head office is located on French territory, and the companies it controls), whose companies have the same level 2 NAF code, can produce the same consolidated greenhouse gas balance sheet.
(2) Headcount calculation
Staff numbers must be calculated in accordance with the rules set out in article L.1111-2 of the French Labor Code. In addition to employees with permanent contracts, temporary employees, employees on fixed-term contracts and employees seconded from outside companies must be included in the company's workforce, in proportion to the time they have worked for the company over the previous 12 months, unless they are replacing an employee who is temporarily absent. In addition, part-time employees, whatever their employment contract, must be counted in proportion to their working hours.
Greenhouse gases concerned
As of February 5, 2016, the gases concerned are as follows:
- carbon dioxide (CO2) ;
- methane (CH4) ;
- nitrous oxide (N2O) ;
- hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) ;
- perfluorocarbons (PFCs) ;
- sulfur hexafluoride (SF6);
- nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).
This list was created by the Order of August 24, 2011. However, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) is newly included in the list of gases to be taken into account (Arrêté du 25 janvier 2016 relatif aux gaz à effet de serre couverts par les bilans d'émission de gaz à effet de serre, which came into force on February 5, 2016).
Note: Greenhouse gas emission reports due on or after July 1, 2016 must include nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).
Periodicity of the greenhouse gas assessment
The first report was due by December 31, 2012. It must be updated at least every 4 years. This periodicity was previously 3 years, The decree (n° 2015-1738 of December 24, 2015) modified it to 4 years, in particular to align with the periodicity of energy audits.
In practical terms, if we take 2012 as the reference year, the years for submitting the balance sheets are 2012, 2015, 2019, 2023, ...
Notion of reporting year
The reporting year is the year over which activity data is collected to establish the GHG emissions balance. Regulations do not specify that this year must correspond to a calendar year.
In order to track changes in emissions over time and measure the effectiveness of its actions, the company may choose a reference year different from the reporting year (from 2000 onwards). The GHG emissions balance for this reference year will have to be recalculated in the event of a change in the legal entity's organizational perimeter or a change in the GHG emissions assessment method.
In addition, any unaffected company that exceeds the workforce threshold of 500 on December 31 of any calendar year will be required to complete its first balance sheet by December 31 of the following year, and to update it every 4 years thereafter.
Contents of a greenhouse gas balance sheet
The balance sheet must contain :
- an assessment of the volume of GHG(2) emissions, expressed in equivalent tons of CO2, distinguishing between direct emissions (sources linked to the company's activity) and indirect emissions (sources linked to energy use);
- emission reduction targets and actions, broken down into direct and indirect emission categories.
Procedures for communicating and publishing GHG balances
Until the end of 2015, companies were required to submit their GHG balances electronically to the prefect and publish them on their website. From now on, GHG assessments must be transmitted and published via an IT platform managed byADEME.
Some information is mandatory, others optional. Naturally, the site is secure, with the necessary access restrictions to protect data confidentiality. The DREALs have read-only access to the entire content of the application, with regard to the balance sheets of legal entities in their region. Visitors have read access to all the contents of the application, with the exception of the contact details of the person responsible for monitoring the balance sheet, if the declarant has decided not to make them visible.
The order of January 25, 2016 relating to the IT platform for the transmission of greenhouse gas emission balances defines all the rules relating to this platform.
Main regulatory references
- Code de l'environnement - Articles L. 229-25 to L. 229-26: Greenhouse gas emissions and territorial climate-energy plan
- Code de l'Environnement - Articles R. 229-45 to R. 229-56: Greenhouse gas emissions and territorial climate-energy plans
- Order of January 25, 2016 on the greenhouse gases covered by greenhouse gas emission assessments.
- Order of January 25, 2016 on the IT platform for the transmission of greenhouse gas emission assessments