Net zero consultancy

The United Kingdom is committed to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 under section 1 of the Climate Change Act 2008, as amended by the 2050 Target Amendment Order 2019.

That target binds ministers, not companies, and nothing in the Act tells a business to set one.

The work reaches a business through four other instruments, each with its own test and its own date.

Public procurement

PPN 006 asks in-scope central government buyers to make a Carbon Reduction Plan a condition of participation where a contract is worth more than £5 million a year, including VAT, averaged over its life.

It is a bid condition, set procurement by procurement, and it is the trigger that most often arrives with a fortnight’s notice.

ESOS

A UK undertaking qualifies for ESOS Phase 4 if, on 31 December 2026, it employs at least 250 people, or has turnover above £44 million and a balance sheet total above £38 million (Schedule 1).

The assessment must be complete and notified by 5 December 2027 (regulation 4), and the scheme is summarised on the ESOS hub.

SECR

Quoted companies, and large unquoted companies that exceed at least two of £36 million turnover, £18 million balance sheet total and 250 employees (Schedule 7 ¶20B), report energy, emissions and an intensity ratio in the directors’ report every year.

The SECR thresholds are read at the provision on this site, and the government’s SECR guidance sets out the method.

The FCA’s rules for listed companies

Under PS26/19, listed companies in UKLR 6, 14, 15, 16 and 22 report against UK SRS on a comply-or-explain basis for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, with first reports in 2028.

UK SRS S2 asks for information about any transition plan a company has, and for each target whether a third party validated it (UK SRS S2 ¶¶14, 34).

Read together, these are not four projects.

They are four disclosure surfaces on one set of numbers, which is why running them separately is how organisations end up paying for the same baseline several times.

A pledge names a year.

A pathway names a rate: how fast emissions fall, in which years, from which activities.

The SBTi’s Net-Zero Standard Criteria define net zero as reducing emissions to a residual level consistent with 1.5°C pathways and then neutralising only that residual.

That definition is why the near-term target matters most.

It falls due within five to ten years of submission, while the people who set it are still in post, which is what makes the long-term target testable.

The residual at the end of the curve is the only part that removals or credits legitimately address.

A plan whose curve is flat for eight years and then vertical is not a plan; it is a deferral with a date on it.

Most of the uncertainty sits in Scope 3, which is why Scope 3 under UK SRS and the SBTi’s 40% trigger deserve the earliest attention.

The UK disclosure asks for more than the percentage: for each emissions target, which gases and scopes it covers, whether it is gross or net, and the planned use of carbon credits (UK SRS S2 ¶36).

A company that discloses a net target must also disclose the gross target behind it.

A transition plan sets out how a company moves from its current footprint to its targets: the levers, the capital, the dependencies and the governance.

UK SRS S2 asks for information about any transition plan the entity has, including its key assumptions and dependencies (¶14(a)(iv)).

Under the FCA’s final rules, a listed company in UKLR 6, 16 or 22 states in its annual report whether it has a transition plan and where it can be found, and explains if it has not (PS26/19 ¶2.37).

Nobody is required to have a plan, but a weak plan, once disclosed, is a disclosure decision in itself.

A Carbon Reduction Plan is a different document for a different reader, built to the PPN 006 Technical Standard.

It covers Scope 1 and 2 in full and only five Scope 3 categories: upstream and downstream transportation and distribution, waste generated in operations, business travel and employee commuting.

It commits to net zero by 2050 in the UK, and a director signs it.

The NHS runs its own requirement, which accepts a plan built to PPN 006; procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 follow PPN 06/21.

Built once, the same evidence serves both; built separately, they drift apart, and a buyer comparing the plan with the annual report is exactly the reader who notices.

How UK SRS treats transition plans is set out on transition plans under UK SRS.

The two specialisms sit either side of the same data, and the difference is direction of travel rather than quality.

In practice the measurement is done with a carbon consultancy or with carbon accounting software, and strategy is set afterwards.

Many firms do both, and there is nothing wrong with that, provided you know which one you are buying in any given month.

Software is the right answer when the question is repeatability: a known boundary, activity data in hand, and the same number needed every year.

A consultant is the right answer when the question is judgement: where the boundary sits, which pathway applies, and what a defensible Scope 3 screen looks like when data does not exist.

The inventory should name the DESNZ conversion factor year it used, because a factor change is not a performance change.

Almost every firm describes the same four-stage method on its website.

The method is not the differentiator; what a firm will commit to in writing is.

1. Which of the four steps is this proposal buying? A proposal that spans all four without separable deliverables is a retainer in a project’s clothes.
2. What is the boundary, and who decided it? Equity share, financial control or operational control changes the footprint; it should be your documented decision.
3. How is Scope 3 handled where data does not exist? Screening and spend-based proxies are legitimate; silently omitting a category is not.
4. Which SBTi version will assess the target? V1.3.1 until 31 January 2028 at the latest; V2.0 from 1 February 2027 by choice and from 1 February 2028 by rule.
5. How much of the pathway is credits? Ask for the number, and what happens to the plan if credit prices double.
6. Has the firm written a plan for an assurer before? A plan that cannot evidence its inputs becomes a disclosure problem the year after.

On fees, expect either a fixed-scope project — baseline, targets and plan as separable deliverables — or a retainer.

No regulator publishes a fee benchmark, so ask two or three firms for proposals against the same written scope and compare the deliverables line by line.

A day rate says nothing about the number of days, and the number of days is the price.

This site is an independent reference on UK sustainability reporting.

It sets no targets, validates nothing, writes no Carbon Reduction Plans and performs no part of anyone’s compliance.

Readers who want to talk a situation through can book a free 15-minute call.

Within the same network, uksrs.org.uk covers net zero consultants as a reference topic of its own.

If a conversation points at software or your own team rather than a consultant, that is the more useful answer.