Climate declarations for buildings

Draft Act on climate declarations for buildings

With certain exceptions, the draft Act on climate declarations for buildings places requirements on developers to prepare and submit a climate declaration to the responsible supervisory authority when a new building is erected. The climate declaration is to include information on the climate impact of the building during the construction phase. The supervisory authority is to keep a register of submitted climate declarations. The supervisory authority may register the value the authority has calculated instead of the declared value if the developer has not submitted a reasonable explanation for the discrepancy. After such registration, the authority may issue a financial penalty if there are special reasons.

The draft Act on climate declarations for buildings is to be considered as technical regulations and must be notified in accordance with the Notification Directive.

The provisions of the regulations are objective and non-discriminatory and are directly linked to the purpose of reducing the climate impact when buildings are erected. No less intrusive measures to achieve the aim of the regulations are deemed to exist. The provisions are proportionate and constitute a necessary prerequisite for revealing the climate impact when buildings are erected for the purpose of reducing it.

The Act does not include any mutual recognition clause. This has not been deemed necessary, because there is not considered to be any risk of foreign actors needing to meet the same type of requirements in their home country. There are no provisions on requirements for climate declarations for buildings in most EU Member States. Where there are similar regulations in place e.g. in the Netherlands, buildings erected in Sweden are not included. Therefore, there should be no risk that a developer would have to prepare double climate declarations for buildings erected in Sweden.

The statutory proposal is proposed to enter into force on 1 January 2022.