DPE: for Équilibre des Énergies, the government must admit that the best energy is that which does not emit CO²

“The new DPE finally considers CO² emissions, this is an important step forward. But the account is not there. The new scale of the DPE is not in line with the objective of carbon neutrality and housing will be able to continue to emerge from the status of thermal strainer by switching from electricity to gas ”.

Brice Lalonde, president of the organization Équilibre des Énergies and former Minister of the Environment

Finally, the energy performance diagnosis takes into account the CO² emissions of housing.

With the new DPE, the government puts an end to the errors of the policy followed for years consisting of evaluating the performance of housing based solely on their primary energy consumption. Taking CO² emissions into account in the new performance scale is a step forward that Équilibre des Energies has been advocating for years and that should be welcomed.

Theoretically, if an owner wants his home to be well classified in the DPE, he will have to ensure that it has both low CO² emissions and consumes little energy.

But the government remains very lax on the climate scale

Paradoxically, while the government wants to take additional measures to fight against climate change, the new scale proposed for CO² emissions is relaxed by around 30% compared to the current scale. It was set to consolidate the positioning of gas-heated housing in the DPE and thus establishes a sort of right to issue for their benefit.

Instead of encouraging all homes to progress towards carbon neutrality, the Climate scale will only have an illusory effect and will not invite the French to move towards low-carbon solutions. It is therefore a realignment of the entire carbon scale which must be carried out on the basis of the following considerations:

• Label A should be reserved for high-performance housing, i.e. new housing which in 2050 will ensure carbon neutrality. The carbon threshold should not exceed 3 kg of CO² / m².year
• Label B should represent the objective to be achieved by existing housing after complete renovation and serve as the basis for the award of the BBC Rénovation label.
• For the other labels, the climate ambition must also be revised upwards in order to avoid renovations that run counter to the desire for carbon reduction and sobriety.

Thus, with the new DPE, an electrically heated housing can leave the category of thermal strainers, label F or G, with the simple installation of a gas boiler. This recurring practice, which degrades CO² emissions and does not lead to increased insulation, must imperatively cease.

Équilibre des Energies believes that between the discourse held by the government in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the actual terms of this new DPE, the gap must be bridged.

Équilibre des Énergies formulates four proposals:

• Review the carbon label change scales to give them real meaning. In particular, setting the pass thresholds in the category of "thermal strainers" at 350 kWhep / m².year (including 20 kWh for uses not previously taken into account) and 60 kg CO²eq / m².year would be a step forward in the direction and avoid having empty Climate labels.
• Redefine the BBC Rénovation label on the basis of label B of the new DPE, supplemented by a final energy consumption requirement of <60 kWhef / m².year;
• Introduce a clause of no increase in CO² emissions as a prerequisite for the granting of any public support for the thermal rehabilitation of housing as well as the exit from the status of thermal strainer;
• Harmonize the requirements of RE2020 with label A of the new DPE by introducing in RE 2020, for all new housing including collective housing, an emission target of 4 kg CO²eq / m². year¹, by 2028 at the latest.

¹ The m² are calculated differently between the RE 2020 and the DPE