Authorities, Researchers and the Industry Gathered for the Sixth Annual Nordic Climate Forum for Construction

Valuable insights and updates on the ongoing efforts to reduce the construction sector’s climate impact were shared this Wednesday, as representatives from all Nordic countries and Estonia gathered for the sixth annual Nordic Climate Forum for Construction. 

With the Malmö harbour as a scenic backdrop, Kristina Einarsson from Sweden’s Authority of Housing and Construction Boverket, who hosted the event, introduced a programme focused on key topics such as setting limit values, methodologies for calculating climate impacts and potentials for harmonisation of embodied carbon regulation. 

In addition, the forum explored how the Nordic countries are positioning themselves to navigate upcoming EU regulations while maintaining their role as a global leader in the green transition. Below, you will find key highlights from each presenter.

EU outlook

With the re-election of Ursula Von der Leyen, as the President of the EU Commission, it seems as there will be an even stronger focus on housing and construction in the years ahead. The policies decided upon have to be specificed and be implemented. Some of them focus on how to calculate and regulate the climate impact from construction. Two representatives from the EU Commission gave an EU policy overview regarding low carbon construction.

Construction Product Regulation (CPR)

Philippe Moseley, Policy Officer in DG GROW at the EU Commission, gave a presentation on the developments with the CPR.

The new regulation will have a great impact for the area of construction products and create a common technical language of the performance of products. A key part of products on the market will be affected by the new regulation as well as a part of materials used to make construction products and packaging for products.

The CPR will introduce product requirements in three categories: Functionality, safety and environment. It will also introduce a digital product passport. Furthermore it will ensure, that products made in countries outside of the EU still need to be assessed by a European body.

Notional delegated acts could support it and add extra requirements such as ensure that products going on the market will be accompanied by a general product information (e.g. end of life recommendations and maintenance), or demand environmental labels. The final text of the CPR is expected to be published in the autumn of 2024.

Life cycle Global Warming Potentials

Luzie Rück from Viegand and Maagøe contracted by the European Commission to give technical support on how to specify upcoming roadmap and delegated act on regulating whole life carbon as stated in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).

According to the EPBD, from January 2027 all member states must submit a roadmap describing how to introduce regulation that regulate the life-cycle Global Warming potential and downward trending green house gas limits for new buildings, going towards climate neutrality in 2050. In 2028 the countries should start introducing their policies. In 2030 all member states is required to have introduced limit values and set more ambitious voluntary targets. Furthermore, in 2030 the climate impact of all new buildings must be calculated as in accordance with the EPBD.

The EU Commission is in the process of writing a delegated act, describing what method to use when making the calculations. One of the main objectives of this year’s Nordic Climate Forum for Construction was for authorities and industry to give input to this delegated act based on Nordic experiences. 

Nordic outlook 

The Nordic region is leading when it comes to implement policies and regulations on the climate and environmental impact of buildings. All Nordic countries and Estonia are currently working on, or are in the process of implementing, climate declarations and limit values. Therefore, the countries have collaborated on pointing out areas to be aware of in the startup process. Several of these topics have been mapped and analysed in reports. 

You can find in our knowledge center.  

The Nordic countries and Estonia have the advantage of being able to share and create knowledge togetherand get inspiration from each other. However, there are differences in e.g. which buildings the countries include in their regulations, what parts of the buildings to include and in what format the calculations are submitted. Thus, there is a potential to harmonise further, which was one of the main focus areas of the presentations and discussions at the forum. 

See an overview of Nordic climate declarations and limit values integration here.

How are the Nordic Countries and Estonia Implementing Policies on Low Carbon Construction? 

Regulations are in place in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In Iceland, Finland and Estonia, regulations are being developed and will be implemented in the coming years. Here is an overview of the countries’ regulatory work. 

Denmark  

In spring 2024 a new political agreement was reached in Denmark, deciding to tighten the limit values and broaden the scope of buildings included, accelerating the green transition of the construction sector compared to the original national agreement on sustainable construction from 2021. The new regulation and limit values will be adopted in July 2025. 

One of the key elements of the agreement is the decision to introduce differentiated limit values for different building types. Furthermore an independent limit value is introduced for the construction process.

With a new average limit value of 7,1 CO2e/m2/year, approximately 85 pct of new construction need to perform better. Another significant area is a revision of the Danish building regulations to find clashes between climate requirements and other requirements in the building codes. 

Norway  

Norway has introduced requirements to calculate greenhouse gas emissions for buildings. The new requirements came into place on July 1st 2022. A1-A4, B2 and B4 is included in the requirements.  

Furthermore a climate partnership was launched in June with stakeholders from the industry and the Norwegian construction authorities. See more information about the partnership and other Nordic initiatives here.  

Norway is developing a guide to the standard on how to calculate. They have also investigated, where the emissions from the industry are most significant and has experienced, that building materials and import of building materials makes up a big part of the total climate footprint.

Sweden 

In 2020 the Swedish Government launched the initiative “Fossil Free Sweden” to increase the pace of the climate transition. The Swedish construction sector made a roadmap to support this vision, which was updated this year, including specific actions on how to get there. 

Sweden adopted a climate regulation for new buildings on January 2022. According to this, the developers need to declare on the climate impact (A1-A5) from all construction products, before they can get final clearance. The initiative is a separate set of regulations that is not included in the Swedish building codes. Boverket are responsible for collecting the calculations from the industry and ensuring compliance. 

Boverket has published a digital handbook for the climate declaration with guidance on how to report. They have also developed a climate database to encourage developers to use EPD’s  

Sweden is planning on introducing limit values.

Finland 

In Finland a climate declaration and a construction act amendment is currently under notification. The climate declaration and limit values enters into force on January 2026. 

Finland expect to introduce differentiated limit values. The authority is both working with carbon footprint, but also including carbon handprint in their regulations, meaning avoided or eliminated emissions in construction projects.  

Estonia  

Estonia is implementing regulation requiring calculation of carbon footprint from new construction from July 2025. New buildings more than 1000 sqm. will be included. In 2027 a roadmap will be published in accordance with the EPBD. From 2030 all new buildings will be included, and at the same time limit values will be introduced.  

Furthermore, Estonia is working on developing a generic database of material emission factor and educational courses to support the implementation. 

Another relevant initiative mentioned at the forum, was that Estonia will introduce requirements on carbon footprint calculation for infrastructure. 

Iceland 

In 2022 Iceland published a roadmap with 74 concrete actions in collaboration between the authorities and construction industry. At the current moment 34 of the actions have been implemented. In addition, in 2024 Iceland has published a new Roadmap for shaping the research environment in construction. 

In Iceland a climate declaration will be implemented on Sep 1 2025. In 2028 limit values will be introduced based on data collected.  

Iceland has developed a format for LCA calculations, including e.g. what to include in the calculations and what software to use. 

Until September 2025, focus areas include dialogue with relevant stakeholders and developing education to ensure a successful implementation.  

Experiences from the industry 

To contribute to the discussions with the industry’s perspective, representatives from NREP, Norgeshus and Skanska were invited to present their recommendations on implementing regulations and where to harmonise.  

One of the points mentioned were a need for a Nordic but also European harmonisation to be able to compare data across borders. There exists an uncertainty or lack of transparency in the comparison of LCA results, because of differences in calculation methods. 

The presenters requested more specific data and EPD’s, digital tools and underlined the authorities’ responsibility to ensuring fair competition.  

Roundtable discussions 

The programme ended with two roundtable discussions where authorities and stakeholders from across the Nordic construction value chain discussed what to focus on in our continued work for Nordic harmonisation of regulation and inspiration to others. 

Conclusions from the roundtable discussions will be shared on Nordic Sustainable Construction’s website. Make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and sign up to our newsletter so you will not miss out on it.

Click here to watch or rewatch the presentations and download slides