Sustainability reporting standards: which exist, who owns them, and which apply

Rulebooks that say what a company discloses about sustainability matters and how.

Some are written by standard-setters for voluntary use — the ISSB’s IFRS S1 and S2, GRI, SASB — and become duties only when a law or regulator requires them.

Others are made under law, like the EU’s ESRS.

In the UK the national standards are UK SRS S1 and S2.

UK SRS S1 (general requirements) and UK SRS S2 (climate-related disclosures), the UK versions of IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, published by the Department for Business and Trade on 25 February 2026 for voluntary use.

Under the FCA’s final rules (PS26/19), companies listed in UKLR 6, 14, 15, 16 and 22 report against them on a comply-or-explain basis for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027.

The standards themselves are voluntary.

Listed companies in five categories must report against UK SRS or explain from 2027.

Separately, UK law requires SECR energy and carbon reporting for quoted and large companies, ESOS energy audits for large undertakings, and climate-related financial disclosures for companies with more than 500 employees that meet the other tests in section 414CA.

A standard sets requirements an entity can comply with and state compliance against — IFRS S1, GRI 2, ESRS E1.

A framework gives structure and recommendations without compliance requirements — the TCFD recommendations, the TNFD recommendations, the Integrated Reporting Framework.

The words are used loosely; what matters is whether a law or regulator requires it.

IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board in June 2023 and published by the IFRS Foundation as IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards.

They are a global baseline for reporting to investors.

Requirements based on them had come into effect in 19 jurisdictions as at 24 February 2026.

Only through EU activity.

An EU subsidiary of a UK group is in scope on its own figures if it exceeds €450 million net turnover and 1,000 employees.

A UK parent is reached through Article 40a: more than €450 million of EU net turnover in each of the last two financial years, plus an EU subsidiary or branch above €200 million.

Start with what is required: UK SRS if you are listed in one of the five categories, SECR, ESOS and the Companies Act climate disclosures if you meet their tests, and the ESRS if CSRD reaches your group.

Then add voluntary standards by audience: UK SRS or the ISSB standards for investors, GRI for impact reporting, SASB for industry metrics.

Yes.

The GRI Standards are set by the Global Sustainability Standards Board and are the most widely used voluntary standards for reporting an organisation’s impacts on the economy, environment and people.

No UK instrument requires them.

The Task Force disbanded on 12 October 2023, having fulfilled its remit.

Its four pillars and eleven recommended disclosures live on inside IFRS S2 and UK SRS S2, and the FCA’s new rules replace the TCFD-aligned listing rules from periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027.

The FCA’s Policy Statement gives no total.

Its consultation, CP26/5, estimated that around 600 listed companies would be affected; that is the consultation’s estimate, not a count in the final rules.

The duties that apply to environmental information are mostly statutory regimes rather than standards: SECR for energy and carbon in the directors’ report, ESOS energy audits for large undertakings, and the climate-related financial disclosures in the strategic report.

Standards such as UK SRS S2 and the GHG Protocol say how the information is prepared.

Used loosely they mean the same thing.

In the ISSB’s and UK SRS’s language a disclosure is a specific item of information required by a standard, and sustainability-related financial disclosures are the set of them a company publishes in its general purpose financial reports.