CARBON REGULATION

Since June 2011, as part of the Grenelle II Law of 12 July 2010, a method has been required for companies falling within the act’s remit (companies with over 500 employees – 250 for overseas departments, local authorities with over 50,000 inhabitants and public undertakings with over 250 employees) to carry out an inventory every 3 years.

The 2021 Finance Law (art. 244) requires companies with more than 50 employees and benefiting from the recovery plan to create a simplified greenhouse gas inventory.

However, there is nothing to prevent a smaller company from using this method of calculation.

This is the statutory method called for by Article 75 of the Grenelle II Act, which covers only Scopes 1 and 2, with a complementary method suitable for local authorities (Heritage and Skills).

The ISO 14064-1 standard was drawn up by the ISO/TC207  “environmental management” technical committee. It specifies for organisations the principles and requirements for quantifying and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and removals, using the general principles applicable to all regulations.

France proposed a revision and work started in January 2014 as part of TC207/SC7/WG4 within Afnor (the French national organization for standardisation)

The content of the revision is now based on the ISO 14069 Technical Report to ensure transparency in the quantification of organisations’ GHG emissions and removals and in the drafting of their inventories. This revision finally led to the creation of the 14064-1: 2018 standard, which specifies that organisations must take into account Scopes 1 and 2 on a mandatory basis, and Scope 3 on an optional basis.

In France, ADEME published a methodology in 2004 for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions for organisations, called Bilan Carbone®.

This method is now coordinated and disseminated by the Bilan Carbone® Association.

The Bilan Carbone® method takes into account all the greenhouse gases defined by the IPCC for all the physical flows without which the operation of the organisation would not be possible. This methodology covers all of SCOPES 1, 2 and 3 as defined by the GHG Protocol.

It also enables companies and local authorities to carry out an overall assessment of GHG emissions, whether direct or indirect. A method has also been specifically developed for use on a national level.

In 1998, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resources Institutes (WRI) in partnership with companies, NGOs and state representatives, developed a method for accounting for and reporting GHG emissions for companies : the GHG Protocol, “A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard”.

This protocol, which has been widely disseminated internationally, served as the basis for the development of ISO 14064-1:2006.

This methodology has covered all of SCOPES 1, 2 and 3 since October 2011 and has been amended to include the “Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard” which specifies in particular an organisation’s potential headings of indirect GHG emissions.