Advancing towards an integrated assessment of climate risk: Bridging top-down and bottom-up climate models

As concerns about climate risk continue to grow among pension funds, insurers, and asset managers, institutional investors are increasingly seeking to embed climate considerations consistently throughout the investment process - from capital market assumptions and strategic asset allocation to benchmark design and security selection.

In practice, investors often find that different teams rely on top-down and bottom-up climate models built on varying methodologies, climate narratives, and assumptions, and designed for different investment use cases, despite being used to assess the same underlying climate risks. This can lead to inconsistencies across the organization, making it more difficult to translate climate insights into action.

To overcome this challenge, MSCI and Ortec Finance have embarked on a year-long pilot programme to explore how top-down and bottom-up climate models can be integrated to achieve a more holistic response to climate risks and more effective mitigation strategies.

Join us for a special presentation, taking place during PRI-in person 2026’s collaboration day, where Maurits van Joolingen, Managing Director – Climate Scenarios & Sustainability, Ortec Finance and Lisa Eichler, Executive Director – MSCI Climate Product & Solutions, will share the journey behind this pioneering development, from its inception to its practical application. They will discuss:

• How the overarching top-down and bottom-up methodologies from Ortec Finance and MSCI have been combined to deliver an integrated assessment
• The results of this assessment and how they can be applied in practice across the different levels of the investment decision-making process
• What’s next for this pioneering innovation, including how it can help ensure portfolio climate resilience and become embedded within wider risk management frameworks.