ℹ️Glossary
ADEME, French Public Agency for Ecological Transition
ADEME, French Public Agency for Ecological Transition (formerly ADEME, French Public Agency for Ecological Transition), is a public establishment contributing to the implementation of public policies in the fields of environment, energy and sustainable development.
Reporting year
Year for which the activity data were collected to establish the greenhouse gas reporting.
Base year
Year, established at the time of the first assessment, to which each new assessment is compared. It remains the same from one assessment period to another, unless needed (Example: the organisation’s activity changes drastically making the data difficult to compare).
Immediate actions
Short-term actions that make it possible to launch the action plan and motivate teams.
Strategic actions
Medium/long-term actions that make it possible to significantly reduce the organisation's carbon vulnerability.
Approach improvement action
Actions that make it possible to take a step back from the completed Bilan Carbone®. This may concern the evaluation of compliance with the principles of the Bilan Carbone®, the identification of errors and omissions during the accounting of emissions, and taking into account feedback regarding the awareness-raising carried out by the organisation.
Adaptation actions
Short and medium-term actions enabling adaptation to the consequences of climate change to ensure the resilience and survival of the organisation.
Base Empreinte®
Database containing a wide variety of GHG emission factors (EF) made available to actors in carbon accounting. The factors historically mainly come from the Emission factor database, and some also come from the Base IMPACTS®.
Assessment
In this document, unless specified, the term “assessment” refers at the same time to:
A Regulatory GHG Assessment (BEGES-R if abbreviated)
A Bilan Carbone® (BC® if abbreviated)
A reporting assessment for the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive ESRS E1 (BR-CSRD if abbreviated)
Bilan Carbone®
The term Bilan Carbone® denotes the method developed by ADEME, French Public Agency for Ecological Transition and the Association for Low Carbon Transition (ABC), which proposes the definition and implementation of a progress approach regarding GHGs, the evaluation and reduction of GHGs for organisations. The term Bilan Carbone® also denotes the spreadsheets distributed by ABC, which enable the necessary calculations and the associated user manuals.
The Bilan Carbone® complies with the following principles:
Low-carbon strategy: the approach seeks to add a mitigation dimension to the organisation’s strategy.
Long-term vision: the approach contributes to defining a low-carbon transition vision for the organisation in the long term.
Anticipation: the approach encourages anticipating upcoming changes.
Pragmatism: the approach requires to remaining pragmatic with respect to the results obtained, which are not always those anticipated beforehand.
Coherence: the approach is coherent with current issues, i.e. with national and international strategies to combat climate change (National Low Carbon Strategy, Paris Agreement, ...), and promotes the emergence of a low-carbon society.
Accuracy: the biases and uncertainties inherent to the approach are quantified and reduced as much as possible.
Significance: the approach seeks to cover as many emissions as possible, and to cover all so-called significant emissions.
Evaluation: the approach must lead to results that can be evaluated.
Transparency: the approach must be sufficiently transparent to allow its evaluation, and the results obtained must be published on the platform of the Observatoire de la Comptabilité Carbone in France (OCCF).
Regulatory GHG Assessment
Diagnosis of greenhouse gas emissions over one year of a legal entity in order to identify and mobilise sources of emission reductions. This diagnosis is mandatory for:
Companies with more than 500 employees (250 in overseas departments)
Local authorities with more than 50,000 inhabitants
Public establishments with more than 250 agents
State services
The BEGES-R is public and updated every 4 years for private legal entities, and every 3 years for the State, local authorities and other public legal entities. The BEGES-R must be published on the ADEME, French Public Agency for Ecological Transition platform.
Evaluation lead
Person trained (following the training offered by ABC and its partners) and certified in the evaluation of assessments, who leads the evaluation of a given assessment, ensures its proper conduct and prepares the final evaluation report. They may be accompanied by various experts depending on the complementary skills necessary for the proper conduct of the evaluation process.
CO2 equivalent (CO2eq)
Unit allowing comparison of the radiative forcing of a GHG with that of carbon dioxide, calculated using the mass of a given GHG multiplied by its Global Warming Potential (GWP), provided by the IPCC (adapted from the NF- ISO 14064-1:2018 standard).
Coconstruction
Collective participation of the organisation’s employees, as well as stakeholders.
For more information, refer to the Bilan Carbone® methodological guide.
Cprofessional competence
Exercising caution and discernment according to the risk associated with the task performed and the confidence placed by clients and intended users, and having the necessary competencies to undertake the evaluation (adapted from the standard ISO 14066:2023)
Assessment review
Carrying out an inspection of the state of an assessment with regard to the requirements of a standard
DREAL
Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing. These are decentralised services of the French State, under the joint supervision of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion.
Activity data
Quantitative measure of a given activity that causes GHG emissions or removals (adapted from the NF ISO 14064-1:2018 standard).
Direct GHG emissions
GHG emissions from sources owned or controlled by the legal entity / organisation (adaptation of the NF-ISO 14064-1/2018 standard).
Indirect GHG emissions
GHG emissions that result from the operations and activities of the legal entity / organisation but that come from GHG sources not owned or controlled by it (adapted from the NF-ISO 14064-1:2018 standard).
Evaluation of assessments
Process ensuring the reliability and transparency of assessments and their results. It also makes it possible to identify blocking points and improvements between two assessments of an organisation.
The evaluation includes the verification and validation of assessments, and follows the guidelines described in this methodological guide.
Evaluation team
Person(s) responsible for the verification and validation of the assessment. The entire evaluation team is trained in the Bilan Carbone® method. The evaluation team is led by an evaluation lead. They are trained and certified in the evaluation of assessments.
The whole team meets the following competencies and principles:
Evaluation expertise (training and certification)
Sectoral Bilan Carbone® expertise
Optional - Ability to attest with limited assurance (participation in the process of an accountant or statutory auditor. This is not mandatory, but provides another level of evaluation attestation)
Integrity
Impartiality
Professional competence
Professional judgment
GHG emission factor (EF)
Coefficient relating activity data to GHG emissions or removals (source: NF-ISO 14064-1:2018 standard).
These factors allow conversion of an activity data (km driven, kg purchased, m2 constructed, etc.) into a quantity of greenhouse gas (GHG). They are constructed from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) which allow the evaluation of environmental impacts (in this case the quantities of GHG emitted) of a product or system by studying the physical flows (inflows and outflows) over its entire life cycle.
Greenhouse gases (GHGs)
Gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, natural or anthropogenic, that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths in the infrared radiation spectrum emitted by the Earth's surface, the atmosphere and clouds. This property causes the greenhouse effect.
Water vapour (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and ozone (O3) are the natural greenhouse gases of the Earth's atmosphere.
There are a large number of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, such as halocarbons and other substances containing chlorine or bromine, grouped under the Montreal Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol includes CO2, N2O, CH4, SF6, NF3, HFCs and PFCs.
Impartiality
the evaluator commits to not having (or not having had during the two years preceding the evaluation) a link with the evaluated organisation regarding consultancy activities, family ties or competition, personally or due to their employer and which could cast doubt on their independence of judgment. In the event that any of these situations proves true, the evaluator must inform ABC (Association for Low Carbon Transition)
the evaluator commits to not accepting payment, gift, commission or other monetary or non-monetary advantage, for themselves or their close ones, from the evaluated organisation, its representatives or third parties linked to the evaluated organisation. If proposals are made to the evaluator, they must inform ABC (Association for Low Carbon Transition) without delay
the evaluator must not enter into commercial ties with an organisation, in the case where they have carried out an evaluation for that same organisation in the previous two years
Integrity
Loyal behaviour based on trust, honesty, diligence and responsibility, respect for the law, confidentiality and disclosure of information required by law and the profession throughout the evaluation process (adapted from the standard ISO 14066:2023)
Uncertainty
Parameter associated with the result of a quantification that characterises the dispersion of values that can reasonably be attributed to the quantified quantity (standard NF-ISO 14064-1:2018).
Jprofessional judgment
Being able to draw meaningful and accurate conclusions, give opinions and make interpretations based on observations, knowledge, experience, literature and other information sources, and to exercise professional scepticism (source standard ISO 14066:2023)
Evaluator's memo
Practical guide, detailing step by step the main guidelines of the evaluation. Its content seeks to help the evaluator during the process by:
specifying the steps of the process, their sequence and possible blocking points
indicating the deliverables necessary to verify a criterion
referring to complementary resources
framing the evaluation of certain aspects of an assessment
etc.
This document, reserved for participants in the evaluator training, is not publicly accessible.
Stakeholder engagement
Mobilisation refers to all processes that will lead the organisation to convey the right messages to the right targets.
To achieve mobilisation, the Bilan Carbone® approach involves popularization the issues to raise awareness, empowerment the stakeholders, consultation, then results presentation and communication of the results.
Maturity level - Bilan Carbone®
In order to propose requirements adapted to the organisation and its objectives, the Bilan Carbone® method is set out in 3 main maturity levels: Beginner level, Intermediate level and Advanced level.
To define the maturity level of its organisation in terms of carbon accounting and its positioning on the low-carbon transition pathway, the organisation must ask itself:
Is the organisation carrying out its first Bilan Carbone® or is it further advanced in the approach?
What are the internal and external expectations?
What are the means?
Will this be a first or yet another awareness-raising on planetary issues?
The content of the 3 levels can be found in the Bilan Carbone® methodological guide.
Organisation
Entity constituted as a corporation or having another status, private or public law, that has its own administrative and functional structure. (E.g.: company, local authority, public establishment, company, corporation, firm, authority, institution or any part or combination of these, association, grouping...)
Operational boundary
All emission sources taken into account during a carbon accounting exercise of an organisation as well as their breakdown by category and by item.
Organisational boundary
All sites, installations and competences taken into account during a carbon accounting exercise of an organisation.
Transition Plan
Instrument allowing the establishment of an organisation's vision in the face of the low-carbon transition. It describes the objectives, trajectory and the set of actions and means envisaged for reducing emissions related to an organisation’s activities, and their evolution to make them compatible with a low-carbon world respecting the Paris Agreement.
GHG emissions profile
List of greenhouse gas sources, as well as the quantified GHG emissions associated.
Empowerment
Giving each employee a role in the Bilan Carbone® approach.
For more information, refer to the Bilan Carbone® methodological guide.
Restitution and communication
Sharing with different stakeholders: the results, actions, global and local issues, the organisation’s impacts, the role of stakeholders in these impacts, the actions that result from them, and the role of stakeholders in the success of these actions.
For more information, refer to the Bilan Carbone® methodological guide.
Transition risks and opportunities
Risks and opportunities for an organisation regarding its GHG emissions and energy dependency, determined by a forward-looking analysis.
Awareness and popularization
Strengthening the understanding of essential information around energy-climate issues by stakeholders. Then rallying around the approach to ensure better integration of the transition plan.
For more information, refer to the Bilan Carbone® methodological guide.
GHG source
Physical unit or process releasing a GHG into the atmosphere (standard NF-ISO 14064-1:2018).
Bottom-up pathway
Within the framework of the Bilan Carbone® approach, the defined pathway is bottom-up: the objectives and reduction potential of actions make it possible to define the trajectory.
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