London, May 15, 2026, 13:13 BST
- FTSE Russell has inked a memorandum of understanding with Planetrics, aiming to build out climate-scenario indices and analytics.
- LSEG is making the move after its recent AI-data partnership with Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise.
- No guarantee demand holds up: sustainable funds are seeing outflows, and ESG products are still under the gun from both political and regulatory sides.
FTSE Russell, part of London Stock Exchange Group plc, has reached a provisional deal with Planetrics to build climate-scenario indices and analytics—part of LSEG’s broader effort to boost the value of its data and models. FTSE Russell said both companies aim to roll out new indices before year-end.
The deal is coming into focus as LSEG aims to convince investors its data unit stands to benefit—not get squeezed—by AI and changing client needs. Back in April, the company reported a 9.8% jump in first-quarter total income excluding recoveries, measured on an organic constant-currency basis. For 2026, LSEG is steering revenue growth expectations toward the higher end of its 6.5% to 7.5% target.
It’s arriving just as climate risk shifts from broad ESG tags to sharper, data-driven tools. Climate-scenario indices serve as benchmarks tied to potential futures—think greater physical losses from weather or varied transition costs—giving investors a way to gauge how their portfolios stack up across different scenarios.
Under the proposed partnership, Planetrics—SLR’s climate-risk analytics arm—will supply its physical and transition-risk models to FTSE Russell. Index governance and commercial rollout would fall to FTSE Russell, but it’s Planetrics running the analytics behind those company and portfolio climate indicators.
FTSE Russell is after “transparent, innovative indices,” according to Stephanie Maier, the firm’s head of sustainable. For Thomas Bremner Bligaard, executive director at Planetrics, the shift needs to go beyond just recognizing climate risk—he says it’s time the market starts pricing it in. LSEG
LSEG’s commercial stake is clear. FTSE Russell sits at the heart of the group, right up there with Data & Analytics, Risk Intelligence, Capital Markets and Post Trade. Reuters’ company profile tags LSEG as a financial markets infrastructure and data provider.
The space is crowded. MSCI has a range of climate indices spanning both stocks and bonds, while S&P Dow Jones Indices pushes benchmarks focused on cutting carbon. Intercontinental Exchange deals in climate-risk data, mapping out both physical and transition risks. Now, FTSE Russell’s Planetrics deal is another move heading straight for the data-heavy segment.
LSEG disclosed the move just a day after it revealed plans to deliver its licensed data and analytics to Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise via a Model Context Protocol connector. That MCP standard allows AI systems to tap into external data and tools. For this rollout, LSEG said users will have access to pricing, macroeconomic indicators, company fundamentals, news, forecasts, and estimates—directly within their AI workflows.
The AI channel remains at the heart of the equity pitch. In its April update, LSEG noted that over 150 customers had either joined or were in the process of joining its MCP server. Quilter Cheviot analyst Will Howlett, quoted by Reuters, suggested the latest quarter could calm doubts about “durability of growth.” Reuters
The London Stock Exchange opened as usual, hours set from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. local time. UK stocks moved lower on Friday, pressured by political uncertainty and inflation concerns, according to Reuters.
The concern here: a memorandum of understanding doesn’t show up on the revenue statement, and sustainable investing hasn’t found steady footing. Morningstar tracked global sustainable open-end and exchange-traded funds posting estimated net outflows of $27 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, as hurdles continued to keep investor appetite in check.
Another headache: climate finance comes with political baggage. Back in March, Reuters noted that investor groups targeting climate had lost momentum over the last year, despite a handful of asset owners still pushing managers to address climate risk. That puts FTSE Russell in a tough spot, marketing precision in a space where just carrying the label can turn into a problem.
If Planetrics’ products manage to catch on, LSEG gets a clearer narrative: indices, data, risk models and AI-powered distribution all flowing to the same set of customers. If uptake falters, though, the agreement just becomes one more partnership in a climate-index sector already packed with options, with clients still weighing how much extra data is really worth to them.
