New Climate Law

Leveraging extensive experience in Environmental and Social Management as well as producing annual reports on the carbon footprint of major companies across various sectors, PRIORITY is well-equipped to serve as your advisor in implementing strategies and initiatives for ensuring your organization’s compliance with the New Climate Law.

Feel free to reach out to us to discuss your specific needs and explore the tailored solutions we can offer.

A few words about the Climate Law:

The National Climate Law N. 4936 / 17.05.2022 – Transition to climate neutrality and adaptation toclimate change, emergency provisions to address the energy crisis and protect the environment:

• sets out the framework for identifying, measuring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions across a wide range of economic activities
• sets out practical methods for calculating direct greenhouse gas emissions and indirect greenhouse gas emissions from electricity consumption
• ensures the gradual transition of the country to climate neutrality by 2050
• sets intermediate emission reduction targets (based on the 1990 levels):
• 55% for 2030
• 80% for 2040

The main provisions of the Law are the following:

Local Government Organizations

Until March 31, 2023, each first-grade Local Government Organization is obliged to formulate a Municipal Emission Reduction Plan. The Municipal Emission Reduction Plan calculates the carbon footprint, investigates, identifies and prioritizes in a well-documented way the necessary measures and actions to reduce emissions. This plan must align with the goals and policies of the National Energy and Climate Plan and undergo a review at least every five years.

More specifically, the Municipal Emission Reduction Plan:

1. includes a detailed inventory (with a base year of 2019) of energy consumption and emissions across various areas including buildings, public facilities (especially those related to sports and culture), lighting of municipal streets and public spaces, municipal water supply, drainage, irrigation and municipal vehicles.
2. considers the Building Energy Performance Plan
3. sets a target to reduce net emissions by at least 10% for the year 2025 and 30% by the year 2030, compared to the base year 2019.

The implementation of the Municipal Emission Reduction Plan is annually monitored through a technical progress report, drawn up by March 31 of the following year by the energy manager. This report can be assigned through a public contract for the provision of services to an economic entity (external consultant) upon the decision of the competent body of the first-grade Local Government Organizations. Both the Municipal Emission Reduction Plans and the technical progress reports are publicly accessible on an electronic database implemented and operated by the Natural Environment and Climate Change Organization.

As previously mentioned, the calculation of the carbon footprint follows the “2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories” standard, or alternatively, the “ISO 14064-1:2018” standard, categories 1 and 2.

The verification of the carbon footprint is assigned by the first grade Local Government Organizations to a verifier, natural or legal person, who is officially recognized. Starting January 1, 2024, the preparation of the Municipal Emission Reduction Plan and its updates are a perquisite for evaluating proposals from first-grade local authorities seeking financial support for programs in the field of energy conservation and climate change.

BUSINESSES

Legal entities falling under the specified categories must submit a report on their carbon footprint, referencing the year 2022, to a publicly accessible electronic database managed by the Natural and Climate Change Organization. This requirement applies to:

• public limited companies with shares or other securities listed on a regulated market in Greece
• credit institutions as defined in paragraph 1 of Article 3 of Law 4261/2014 (A’ 107)
• insurance companies falling under paragraph 1 of Article 3 of Law 4364/2016 (A’ 13)
• investment companies described in paragraph 1 of Article 4 of Law 4514/2018 (A΄ 14)
• fixed and mobile telephony companies
• water and sewerage companies
• courier companies
• electricity and gas supply companies
• chains of retail stores employing more than 500 workers
• companies providing supply chain services as per passage d of Article 1 of Law 4302/2014 (A’ 225),
• urban transport service providers.

Small and very small enterprises are exempt from this requirement.

Emissions are calculated using  the “2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories” as amended, and include direct greenhouse gas emissions and indirect greenhouse gas emissions from energy consumption, as defined in the “GHG Protocol — WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE” or alternatively, according to the standard “ISO 14064 — 1:2018”, categories 1 and 2. The coefficients listed in the most recent national emissions inventory are used as conversion factors for final energy consumption in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted.

PUBLIC/PRIVATE BUILDINGS & COMPANY HEADQUARTERS

Starting January 1, 2025, the sale and installation of heating oil burners is prohibited. Moving forward to January 1, 2030, the sale of heating oil is permissible only if it contains a minimum of 30% volume of renewable liquid fuels.

Starting January 1, 2023, the Carbon Footprint calculation, using the “ISO 14064-1:2018” standard, categories 1 and 2 or an equivalent method, is included in the Building Energy Performance Plan of the buildings owned by public bodies.

From January 1, 2025, new buildings located in high-vulnerability zones, including areas prone to flooding or near forested regions with a high risk of fire, are required to have compulsory insurance. The existence of an insurance policy is a condition for the electrification of the building.

FACILITIES WITH ENVIRONMENTAL LICENSE

Until 2030, projects and activities holding category A environmental licensing are required to reduce emissions by at least 30% compared to 2019. This requirement applies to the following groups of activities:

• environmental infrastructure systems (group 4)
• tourist facilities and urban regeneration, building sector, sports and leisure projects (group 6)
• poultry breeding facilities (group 7)
• aquaculture (8th group)
• industrial and related facilities (group 9)

From January 1, 2024, to enhance the climate change dimension in environmental licensing, the Environmental Impact Studies (EIA) files must include a quantitative assessment of the direct and indirect emissions of greenhouse gases resulting from construction and operation as well as a quantitative assessment of emissions for participation in the targets set at the national and European Union levels and in the National Energy and Climate Plan. In particular, EIAs should provide information on risks, risk assessment, impact analysis and measures to strengthen resilience to current and future climate conditions.