Read ESG-relevant law as dated git history, and ask what was in force in a place on any date.
Sustainability law changes often, and a consolidated text on a government site usually shows only today's wording. This repository keeps each version of a legal text as one git commit, dated to the day it came into force, so a lookup tool can return the law in force in a place on a given date. It is for people who need to check a reporting or climate duty against the wording that applied at the time: analysts, auditors, researchers and developers of compliance tools.
Text is stored for 140 places and for 831 of the 1378 instruments looked for (as of 2026-11-10). An instrument is one act, regulation, rule or guidance document. For the other 547 instruments the repository holds a link to the official page and no text.
This is not legal advice. The repository is a copy, the official source named in each commit is the authority, and nothing here says whether any company complies with any law.
Maintained by GoCarbonTracker. Inspired by lexifina/global-law, which keeps the law of many countries as one git history. This repository applies the same idea to ESG-relevant law and adds a licence check on every source before any text is stored.
How it works
Each text comes from an official gazette or law portal. Its source is licence-checked first: the text is stored only on a pass verdict, and otherwise only a link is kept. Every stored version becomes one record file and then one commit dated to the day it came into force, and the lookup reads that history.
Quick start
Needs Python 3.11 or later and git. The lookups read the history branch, the branch that holds one commit per text version. A fresh clone holds it as origin/history, so these commands pass --ref origin/history.
git clone https://github.com/GoCarbonTracker-Hq/global-esg-law && cd global-esg-law
python3 tools/law.py GB 2023-01-01 --ref origin/history
python3 tools/law.py CH 2025-06-01 --lang en --ref origin/history
The first lookup prints one line per instrument in force in Great Britain on that date. The second asks for the English text in Switzerland. First lines of output from a fresh clone:
gb-ca2006-s414a-414d 2022-04-06 consolidated Companies Act 2006, Part 15 Chapter 4A, strategic report (sections 414A to 414D)
gb-ca2006-s414cb 2022-04-06 consolidated Companies Act 2006, section 414CB (non-financial and sustainability information statement)
gb-uksi-2022-31 2022-04-06 adopted The Companies (Strategic Report) (Climate-related Financial Disclosure) Regulations 2022
ch-co-art964a-c 2022-01-01 translation Code of Obligations (SR 220), Sixth Division, Art. 964a to 964c: transparency on non-financial matters
de consolidated
fr consolidated
it consolidated
note ch-co-art964a-c: showing the en record
Each line gives the instrument id, the date that version came into force, its kind (adopted, consolidated or translation) and its title. The line shown is the official-language text, and the indented lines name every other language the same version exists in. --lang <code> returns that language where the version has it, and otherwise the official text with a note.
Places are identified by ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code, plus EU. The general form is:
python3 tools/law.py <ISO2> <YYYY-MM-DD> [--repo PATH] [--ref history] [--lang CODE] [--json]
--json adds a languages list to each instrument. In Python: in_force(iso2, on, repo=ROOT, ref="history", lang=None, detail=False) -> list[dict].
Three rules decide what counts as in force:
- A stayed or enjoined rule counts as in force on its date, and its status note is printed with it.
- An amendment published but not yet in force is listed after the line
not yet in force.
- A circular or notice with no commencement clause takes its issue date.
Use it from an AI assistant
A small local server lets an AI assistant that speaks MCP (Model Context Protocol) look up places, laws in force on a date, stored texts and the version history of an instrument. It runs on your machine and changes nothing.
To start, open the cloned folder in Claude Code and approve the server named global-esg-law when it asks. Any other MCP client can run python3 tools/mcp_server.py from the folder. There are four tools: list_places, law_in_force, read_text and instrument_history. Every answer names its snapshot and its source, and text is returned only where the source's licence verdict is pass. MCP.md has the setup, the tools with example answers, and the limits.
Questions it answers
Each question is answered by one command from the repository root.
- What was in force in Great Britain on 1 January 2023?
python3 tools/law.py GB 2023-01-01 --ref origin/history
- Which languages does a Swiss law exist in?
python3 tools/law.py CH 2025-06-01 --ref origin/history
- Is there an English text for it?
python3 tools/law.py CH 2025-06-01 --lang en --ref origin/history
- What changed in Great Britain between 2020 and 2024?
diff <(python3 tools/law.py GB 2020-01-01 --ref origin/history) <(python3 tools/law.py GB 2024-01-01 --ref origin/history). Lines marked < are the 2020 answer and lines marked > the 2024 answer.
- What is announced in Estonia but not yet in force on 1 January 2026?
python3 tools/law.py EE 2026-01-01 --ref origin/history
- Does a place with links only have any text?
python3 tools/law.py AE 2023-01-01 --ref origin/history prints no instruments stored for AE.
What is covered
The register (register/register.csv) is the list of every place and every instrument found for it, 250 places in all. Each place also has a scope file (register/<ISO2>/scope.json), which lists the instruments we looked for there with the official URL of each. A record is one file under records/ holding one version of one text.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
