This text, which will come into force on January 1, 2022, will gradually concern individual housing, collective housing and buildings in the tertiary sector.
Faced with the observation that the provisions of RE2020 lead to the gradual exclusion of the use of gas from new constructions from January 1, 2022 without distinction between natural gas and renewable gas, Coénove filed a request with the Council of State on September 29, 2021 aiming to cancel the silence of RE2020 on biomethane and asks for a supplement to integrate renewable gas into the text.
For Bernard Aulagne, Chairman of Coénove, "The exclusion of biomethane from new constructions resulting from the RE2020 is questionable on several aspects" :
- It ignores the legal provisions and European law which impose to promote the use of all renewable energies in new constructions, without discriminating between renewable energy sources. However, biomethane is the only renewable energy that is excluded from new constructions by RE2020;
- It conflicts with the objectives pursued by RE2020 fight against climate change and use of renewable energies, biomethane making a significant contribution to these two objectives. Conversely, the exclusion of biomethane from new constructions is likely to increase the use of natural gas to produce the electricity necessary to meet the heating requirement in winter.
- It considerably slows down the development of a fully-fledged renewable energy production sector.e, in the same way as renewable electric energies, with the same advantages and benefits for the environment and the fight against greenhouse gas emissions and which also has the advantage of not being intermittent;
- It deprives France of sovereign energy produced locally : short circuits and local production, available throughout the territory, contributes to energy independence and promotes the access of products of Asian origin on the French market;
- Finally, it undermines the entrepreneurial freedom of actors in the sector by closing them permanently and irreversibly, for their gas activity, the new construction sector, even though they have invested and are able to offer energy-efficient solutions using biomethane.
The objective pursued by the association through this recourse is consistent with the convictions it defended throughout the consultation process, namely to promote the energy and environmental performance of buildings through a balanced energy mix favoring recourse. renewable energies. And Bernard Aulagne to emphasize: “We are particularly attached to achieving the ambitious objectives that France has set for the success of the energy transition. Our approach is not conflicting and simply aims to redress an injustice with regard to renewable energy, biomethane, which has its place in the energy mix. "