THE REGULATORY CONTEXT

The building stock must be adapted to cope with extreme weather events that will gradually become a new norm. To orientate the actors towards this imperative, the strategy and the national plan for adaptation to climate change define the guidelines. For local authorities, the natural risk prevention plans and the territorial climate-air-energy plans are the regulatory tools for implementing these strategies. For the real estate sector, the taxonomy is beginning to be applied and is an incentive to carry out climate risk assessments. In addition, the climate resilience law and the RE2020 are regulations that direct their strategy towards a better consideration of the challenges of adapting buildings to climate change.

REGULATORY CONTEXT IN EUROPE

THE EUROPEAN TAXONOMY

The role of taxonomy is to develop a common language between economic companies and financial actors around a categorization of economic activities according to their environmental externalities. It should thus make it possible to increase clarity on the financial markets and direct investments towards companies or projects that are virtuous with regard to the environment.

The European regulation of the European taxonomy will encourage companies and investors to publish extra-financial information on their activities and investments from 2022. For the sectors concerned, the actors will therefore have to determine whether their activities meet the criteria of substantial contribution for an environmental objective. , do not cause significant harm to other objectives and respect minimum social guarantees.

To ensure that an asset is designated as "sustainable" from the point of view of the adaptation issue of the European taxonomy, the actor must submit this asset to a climate risk analysis. A real estate player will also be able to claim “green” investments if it decides to implement solutions for adapting to climate change on its buildings. These solutions should give preference to adaptation solutions based on nature, not harm the other criteria, be compatible with local and sectoral strategies and be monitored and measured by specific indicators.

The BIODI-Bat and Bat-ADAPT tools of the R4RE platform help you identify environmental issues.

The list of hazards taken into account is consistent with that drawn up in the context of the taxonomy;
R4RE makes it possible to carry out a cartographic analysis of the physical risks on the whole of a heritage;
The climate scenarios are 3 in number and are regularly updated according to IPCC publications;
Time projections are consistent with real estate activities (50 years);
The tool also provides indicators to measure and pilot an adaptation strategy;
The adaptation actions proposed by R4RE come from the guide to adaptive actions.
Finally, the tool integrates territorial indicators which aim to create bridges between territorial and real estate actors.

For more information, do not hesitate to consult the OID's European Taxonomy guide on the application of the European taxonomy in the real estate sector.

With regard to reconciling the activities of the real estate sector with ecological issues, the objectives are set out in the EU's 2030 Biodiversity Strategy, the green taxonomy and the extra-financial reporting standards.

TheEU Biodiversity Strategy 2030mentions in particular the objective of reducing land use and the need to restore degraded ecosystems. A cet effet, deux mesures sont intéressantes : _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_

the DNSH “Do No Significant Harm” principle of the European taxonomy which transcribes the desire to preserve natural, agricultural and forest areas – the ENAFs – from artificialization (OID 2022). _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb5cfb-58d_bad
the principle of double materiality in non-financial reporting which requires the integration of the negative impacts of the activity in terms of sustainability, in other words the consequences of economic activities in the environmental and/or social field.(European regulation 2019/2088 known as SFDR “Sustainable Financial Disclosure Reporting»); This is reminiscent of the obligation of social and environmental assessment for companies with more than 500 employees included in the Grenelle 2 Law in France.

BIODI-Bat will allow you to identify areas with high biodiversity stakes and to assess the impacts of a real estate project on the artificialization of a plot, for example.

TASK FORCE ON CLIMATE-RELATED FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE

REGULATORY CONTEXT IN FRANCE

TOWARDS BETTER KNOWLEDGE OF RISKS

Since 2003, the Bachelot law obliges lessors to inform tenants about the natural risks to which the property is exposed as well as about the loss history of the property for a building located in a moderate or high risk zone. In addition, since the law for the development of housing, development and digital technology of 2018, the sale of land necessarily involves the conduct of a geotechnical soil study if the land is located in clay soil, in order to prevent damage related to the phenomena of Shrinkage and Swelling of Clays. These types of obligations will be strengthened in the years to come to consolidate knowledge of the risks of each building. This is the impetus given at the European level by the taxonomy and at the French level by the climate resilience law.

On the scale of French territory, the taking into account of the risks linked to the climate and to biodiversity introduced by the law for energy transition and green growth, and reinforced since 2021 by the implementing decree for article 29 of the Climate Energy Law, could be structuring for many investors. They will now have to provide information on the management of climate-related risks including a qualitative and, if possible, quantitative estimate of the financial impact of these risks. The decree goes further than the simple publication of information, it also imposes on the actors the implementation of a process of continuous improvement to reduce the identified climatic risks.

As for the taxonomy, the Bat-ADAPT part of the R4RE tool allows you to comply with this regulation!

THE CLIMATE AND RESILIENCE LAW

Mastery of urban development has marked the regulatory history relating to the artificialization of soils. urban sprawl. They make it possible to activate levers to densify urban areas by eliminating the minimum size of the plot, by reserving a share of new constructions/rehabilitations/renovations to non-impermeable surfaces and by preserving the ENAF (ALUR Law 2014).

In 2021, theClimate and Resilience lawin its fifth title entitled "Se loger" defines two deadlines for the Zero Net Artificialisation (ZAN) objective: halve the rate of artificialisation by 2030 and achieve the objective of zero net artificialisation ZAN by 2050. commercial, service or storage buildings must have at least 30% of their roofs or car parks covered with photovoltaic or green panels (OID 2021). The Climate and Resilience law also creates the offenses of endangering the environment, environmental pollution and ecocide. Added to this is the ban on setting up new shopping centers in ENAF (Ministry 2021).

INTEGRATING RISK BEFORE CONSTRUCTION

In addition to reporting obligations, construction standards can direct the building stock towards more resilient buildings. This is particularly the case of the new thermal regulation RE2020 which replaces the RT2012.

The 2020 Environmental Regulation, named RE2020, which was adopted in 2021, introduces a new indicator to measure summer comfort in a building. This indicator, the DH for degree-hours, corresponds to the degree-hours of discomfort accumulated over a year. The uncomfortable degrees are conventionally those that exceed 26 or 28°C depending on the case (temperature of the previous days). RE2020 establishes two thresholds:

If the DH are above the upper threshold: the building is deemed non-compliant. If they are below the low threshold, the building is compliant. Between these thresholds, a penalty is applied to non-air-conditioned buildings. An air conditioning package applies to primary energy consumption to anticipate probable future overconsumption linked to post-delivery installation. These thresholds depend on the category of assets: offices, collective housing, education and individual houses.

This text will apply on July 1, 2022, for "construction of buildings or parts of buildings for offices, or primary or secondary education"; then, on January 1, 2023 for the “extensions of these constructions and to temporary constructions”.

It is also a matter of making biodiversity and land development projects coexist.The Regional Ecological Coherence Schemes (SRCE) are created to restore ecological continuity within the Green and Blue Infrastructure (Grenelle I law of 2008 ;Grenelle 2 law of 2010). Furthermore, thelawReclaiming biodiversity, nature and landscapes(2016) reinforces the Avoid-Reduce-Compensate sequence by creating a legal compensation regime and adds a requirement to maintain the same level of biodiversity before/after the project.
BIODI-Bat will allow you to identify the most welcoming areas for biodiversity and at the same time to point out ecological (dis)continuities.

TO GO FURTHER:

Batirama, RE2020 requirements for offices, primary and secondary school premises are published , 2022.

Cerema, Ministry of Ecological Transition, RE2020 Guide: Eco-building for everyone's comfort , 2020.

Ministry of Ecological Transition, Energy-climate law and regulation of financial actors: main advances of the decree implementing article 29 , 2021.

Ministry of Ecological Transition, Draft decrees and orders relating to energy and environmental performance requirements, for office buildings and primary or secondary education buildings, for the 2020 environmental regulations (RE2020) , 2021.

OID, European Taxonomy: Guide to recommendations for its application in the building sector , 2022.

OID, MOOC Adaptation of buildings to climate change , 2022.

TCFD, Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures , 2017.