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Do you work for a company with over 500 employees in mainland France? Or in a structure with 250 employees in the French overseas departments?
Since 2010, you have been required to publish your company's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Balance (BEGES) every 4 years on the ADEME website.
However, the adoption of Decree no. 2022-982 on July 1, 2022 changes the rules of the game, making the regulatory BEGES more demanding and more comprehensive.
As a result, since January 1, 2023, the BEGES has become more ambitious when it comes to accounting for GHG emissions, particularly with regard to 4 key points that you absolutely must know in order to remain in compliance and avoid penalties.
1. Mandatory accounting of indirect emissions
Until now, only direct emissions (scope 1) and emissions due to energy consumption (scope 2) were mandatory in the BEGES framework.
From now on, with the entry into force of the new decree, the organizations concerned by the BEGES must include their significant indirect emissions (Scope 3) in their GHG accounts.
Indirect Scope 3 emissions are often overlooked because they are more complex to account for, yet they are often the most significant category of emissions in a company's carbon footprint.
In some sectors, such as manufacturing, 80 to 90% of company emissions are attributable to scopes 3, and more specifically to purchasing.
Finally, this evolution of the BEGES only reinforces the already highly strategic position of purchasing within companies. Integrating rigorous carbon criteria, in addition to existing socio-economic and environmental criteria, into responsible purchasing strategies will become a necessity for many companies.
What are "significant indirect emissions"?
Significant indirect emissions include Scope 2 emissions associated with energy and Scope 3 emissions associated with transport and products bought and sold.
These significant indirect emissions must be identified by companies, based on a precise methodology and criteria. Of these, the scale criterion must be preponderant, representing at least 80% of your indirect emissions. The other 5 criteria are optional:
- level of influence,
- strategic importance and vulnerability,
- sector-specific guidelines,
- subcontracting,
- staff commitment,
2. New obligation to draw up a transition plan
The second major change in the BEGES concerns the actionability of the carbon footprint.
From now on, companies concerned by the BEGES will have to draw up a "transition plan" consisting of :
- an assessment of past actions,
- medium and long-term objectives,
- an action plan with quantified expected reductions for each scope.
The aim of this new measure is toencourage companies to implement a comprehensive, precise and actionable carbon strategy. This is a major change for organizations, which need to move from a "reporting" to a "management" vision.
This change should lead to far-reaching transformations in business activities, with carbon becoming an essential management criterion.
3. Consolidation of carbon footprint
The new BEGES decree makes it easier for subsidiaries of the same group to produce a carbon footprint.
In accordance with the provisions of Article L. 233-16 of the French Commercial Code, it is now easier for a legal entity (SIREN) to consolidate the GHG emissions reports of all or some of its establishments (SIRET) within its GHG emissions report.
The condition requiring companies in the same group to share the same level II NAF code to consolidate their greenhouse gas footprint has been lifted.
Unfortunately, there are still a number of limitations. This is particularly true for groups with foreign subsidiaries, who can only consolidate their BEGES with companies based in France.
4. Stronger penalties for failure to comply with the BEGES
Finally, the last point to remember concerns the fines applied, which have been revised upwards.
From now on, companies failing to comply with the BEGES regulations will have to pay €10,000, or €20,000 in the case of a repeat offence. This is almost 7 times more than the previous version of the BEGES, which carried a fine of €1,500.
Conclusion: how to keep up to date with the new BEGES regulatory requirements?
As you can see, the new BEGES obligations are part of France's decarbonization strategy, in line with international regulations that are increasingly demanding in the face of the climate emergency.
Today, keeping up to date with the latest regulations is the very least we can do to avoid penalties and, above all, avoid losing competitiveness. This can, and should, be achieved by deploying a carbon footprint platform.
Would you like to make sure that your company can meet the requirements of the new BEGES? Get in touch with the Traace team.
Sources
1. https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/decret-bilan-des-emissions-gaz-effet-serre-beges
2. https://bilans-ges.ademe.fr/
