SECR
since 2019
large cos & LLPs · Directors’ Report
Sustainability, made statutory
Carbon is now a legal quantity.
carbon.legal is the consultancy for the age of mandatory disclosure. We measure your emissions like evidence, file what the law requires — SECR, ESOS, UK SRS — and build the pathway that survives scrutiny. Each grain behind this sentence is a tonne someone must now account for.
—
days to ESOS Phase 4
—
days until UK SRS S2
≈500
listed cos. in SRS scope
Scroll to descend
The regulatory radar
We read the law so you don’t have to.
Every instrument, consultation and standard that touches carbon — tracked from the primary source, dated, and translated into what it means for your business. When the rules move, you hear it from us first.
Regulatory radarPrimary sources
Exposure check
Know exactly what applies to you.
SECR is a two-of-three test. ESOS is an either/or. UK SRS turns on your listing category. We map every threshold to your numbers and hand you one answer — what applies, from when, and what it costs to be late.
Exposure profile1 / 3
0%
Every obligation shows its legal test — click for the next
Sustainability used to be a pledge.
Now it is law.
Past this line — how a carbon.legal engagement runs.
The regulatory horizon
A decade of tightening law.
Every milestone on this timeline is a primary source — SECR in 2019, climate disclosure in the Companies Act in 2022, UK SRS published 25 February 2026, S2 mandatory from 1 January 2027. The terrain behind it: three decades of UK emissions, falling. The direction of travel is not in dispute.
The horizon2019 — 2029
ESOS Phase 4
5 Dec 2027
250+ staff or €50m/€43m
UK SRS S2 · climate
1 Jan 2027
≈500 listed companies
UK SRS S1 · broader
1 Jan 2029
comply-or-explain
TCFD · s.414CB
since 2022
superseded by S2 for listed
Scope 3 relief
to 2028
one-year deferral · CP26/5
ISSA (UK) 5000
15 Dec 2026
assurance standard · FRC
NFSI · Strategic Report
annual
Companies Act 2006
Every date from the primary instrument — verified against source, May 2026
The deadline ledger
We tell you what’s due, and when.
Compliance fails on diaries, not intentions. We hold every date that binds you — qualification days, filing windows, phase deadlines — and start the work backwards from each one. When an obligation is already running, we say so plainly. SECR never closes: it’s due with every set of accounts.
Deadline ledgerWhat binds you
Always running
SECR — annual, with your accounts
SI 2018/1155 · Directors’ Report · energy, Scope 1 & 2, intensity ratio
December 2026
ISSA (UK) 5000 takes effect — 15 Dec
FRC assurance standard · engagement periods from 15 December 2026
ESOS Phase 4 qualification day — 31 Dec
who you are on this date decides whether Phase 4 binds you
2027
UK SRS S2 mandatory — 1 Jan · ESOS P4 audit — 5 Dec
FCA CP26/5 · Scope 3 deferred to 2028 · S1 comply-or-explain from 2029
Measurement
Scopes 1, 2 and 3 — counted like evidence.
A carbon account you’d put in front of a regulator: every figure traceable to a meter reading, an invoice, a supplier return. Scope 3 orbits furthest and weighs most — so that’s where our measurement goes deepest.
Carbon accountIllustrative · UK manufacturer
Example: 260-staff manufacturer, two sites
0 tCO₂e
footprint, FY25
72%
sits in Scope 3
ESOS + SECR
obligations live
tCO₂e per quarter — measured down, not pledged down
72%scope 3
The disclosure desk
Reports a regulator can actually read.
We take the standard apart — every datapoint UK SRS S2, SECR or TCFD actually demands — and draft your disclosure section by section, each one anchored to its paragraph in the instrument. Your first S2 report is the template for every one after it.
Datapoint extractionUK_SRS_S2.pdf
Click a disclosure to mark it drafted
The net zero programme
Advice that argues both sides.
Every recommendation we make carries its own case for and against — capex, payback, abatement, risk — argued in front of you, not behind a slide. The programme lives as a board-ready pipeline of measures, and when Monday comes, board mode puts it on the wall — legible from ten yards.
£/tCO₂e
every measure priced
10yd
boardroom legibility
Decision · self-arguedIllustrative
Adopt UK SRS S2 early — FY26 dry run?
S2 · 2027
For
Against
Adopt—Wait
Why we exist
Counsel for the
carbon age.
carbon.legal exists so the law never surprises you — measurement you can defend, disclosures that read like they were written by someone who’s read the instrument, and a pathway your board actually funds. Every date on this page is from the primary source.