G/TBT/N/FRA/210  
27 May 2021 
(21-4405) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original:  French  
 
  
NOTIFICATION  
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.  
 
1. Notifying Member : FRANCE  
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):  
2. Agency responsible:  
Ministère de la transition écologique  (Ministry for Ecological Transition)  
Direction générale de l'aménagement, du logement et de la nature (Directorate -General 
for Planning, Housing and Nature)  
Direction de l'habitat, de l'urbanisme et des paysages  (Housing, Urban Planni ng and 
Landscape Department)  
Sous-direction de la qualité de la construction  (Construction Quality Unit)  
Bureau de la performance environnementale du bâtiment et de l'animation territoriale  
(Office for the Environmental Performance of Buildings and Territorial Coordination)  
 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the noti fication shall be indicated if different from above:  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [ ], 5.6.2 [ ], 5.7.1 [ ], other:  
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff 
heading . ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable) : - 
Construction products ; - Decoration products ; - Electrical, electronic and environmental 
engineering equipment.  
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document : Décret relatif à 
la déclaration environnemen tale de produits de construction et de décoration ainsi que 
des équipements électriques, électroniques et de génie climatique utilisée pour le calcul 
de la performance environnementale des bâtiments  (Decree on the environmental 
declaration of construction and decoration products and electrical, electronic and 
environmental engineering equipment used to calculate the environmental performance 
of buildings) (8 pages, in French)  
6. Description of content : The Decree on the environmental declaration of construction 
and decoration products and electrical, electronic and environmental engineering 
equipment used to calculate the environmental performance of buildings refers specifically 
to: 
- The requirement for any declarant providing information used to c alculate the 
environmental performance of buildings to make an environmental declaration concerning 
their construction or decoration product or equipment, and specifies the environmental 
aspects to be reported for each stage of the life cycle and for any e ventual sub -steps.  
- The signing of an agreement between the Minister responsible for construction and a 
legal person representing an environmental declaration programme;  G/TBT/N/FRA/210  
- 2 - 
  - The verification of the environmental declaration by an independent third party 
authorized by an environmental declaration programme;  
- The making available to the public of the environmental declaration by the declarant in 
the database(s) indicated in the above -mentioned agreements;  
- The checks that may be carried out by the State on environmental declarations;  
- The making available of environmental data contained in the database(s) indicated in 
the above -mentioned agreements, by the State.  
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where 
applicable : By signing the Paris Agreement in 2015, France made a firm commitment to 
the fight against climate change . This ambition was reaffirmed in the energy -climate law, 
which provides for the achievement of carbon neut rality by 2050 ; improving the energy 
and environmental performance of new buildings is an important tool for the fulfilment of 
this objective . Buildings, because of their energy consumption and also because of the 
way we build them, account for a significa nt part of greenhouse gas emissions in France . 
The 2020 environmental regulations (RE2020) will accelerate the decarbonization of this 
sector by impacting the construction phase, which, for a new, efficient building, accounts 
for between 60% and 90% of its  total carbon impact . With the RE2020, the regulatory 
assessment of the environmental performance of new buildings requires the use of 
environmental declarations (issued by manufacturers) for carrying out life -cycle analyses 
and analyses of default environ mental data and services -related environmental data 
made available by the State . Default environmental data are data used in the absence of 
an environmental declaration for the construction or decoration product, or for the 
equipment chosen, to improve the  completeness of life -cycle analyses . Article 178 of the 
ELAN Act on the development of housing, planning and digital technology (codified in 
article L. 111 -9-2 of the Building and Housing Code) provides that a State Council decree 
shall define : (1) For co nstruction products and equipment, how to calculate and formalize 
the information necessary for the environmental assessment of new buildings using a life -
cycle approach ; (2) Obligations to make such information available to the public ; and (3) 
Obligations  of competence and the guarantee of independence and impartiality of the 
persons verifying this information . The requirements of this State Council decree will be 
incorporated into two Orders ; Protection of the environment.  
8. Relevant documents:  
- Code de la construction et de l'habitation , in particular Articles L. 111 -9 and L. 111 -9-2 
(from section 178 of the Loi ELAN portant sur l'évolution du logement, de l'aménagement 
et du numérique ) 
9. Proposed date of adoption : 1 January 2 022 
Proposed date of entry into force : 1 January 2 022 
10. Final date for comments : 60 days from the date of notification  
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [ ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers and email and website addresses, if available, of other body:  
Ministères économiques et financiers  
Direction générale des entreprises  
SQUALPI  
Bât. Sieyès -Teledoc 151  
61, Bd Vincent Auriol  
75703 PARIS Cedex 13  
d9834.france@finances.gouv.fr  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2021/TBT/FRA/21_3693_00_f.pdf