RELX PLC (RELX): Análise de Pestle [Jan-2025 Atualizado]

No cenário dinâmico dos Serviços Globais de Informação, o RELX PLC fica na encruzilhada da inovação e adaptação estratégica, navegando em desafios complexos que abrangem domínios políticos, econômicos, tecnológicos e sociais. Esta análise abrangente de pestles revela as forças externas multifacetadas que moldam a trajetória estratégica da empresa, revelando como o RELX transforma possíveis interrupções em oportunidades de crescimento e transformação digital. Desde as intrincadas implicações do Brexit à marcha implacável da inteligência artificial, a resiliência da empresa surge como uma prova de sua capacidade de antecipar, adaptar e se destacar em um mercado global cada vez mais interconectado e em rápida evolução.

RELX PLC (RELX) - Análise de pilão: Fatores políticos

Implicações do Brexit para serviços de informação baseados no Reino Unido e operações globais

A partir de 2024, a RELX PLC enfrentou desafios significativos devido ao Brexit, com possíveis impactos em suas operações no Reino Unido e acesso ao mercado europeu. A receita total da empresa dos mercados europeus em 2023 foi de 2,4 bilhões de libras, representando 35% de sua receita global.

Área de impacto do Brexit	Medida quantitativa
Custos de conformidade adicionais potenciais	Estimado £ 45-60 milhões anualmente
Receita do mercado europeu em risco	Aproximadamente £ 850 milhões

Aumento do escrutínio regulatório sobre privacidade de dados e gerenciamento de informações

O RELX PLC encontrou desafios regulatórios aumentados na privacidade de dados em várias jurisdições.

• Custos de conformidade com GDPR em 2023: £ 72 milhões
• Investimentos legais de proteção de dados: £ 38,5 milhões
• Expansão da equipe de conformidade regulatória: 127 novo pessoal especializado

Tensões geopolíticas que afetam estratégias de expansão do mercado internacional

Região	Investimento de expansão de mercado	Fator de risco político
China	£ 215 milhões	Altas restrições comerciais tecnológicas
Rússia	£ 43 milhões	Limitações de mercado relacionadas às sanções
Médio Oriente	£ 167 milhões	Instabilidade geopolítica

Políticas governamentais que apóiam a transformação digital e a economia do conhecimento

O RELX PLC alinhou estrategicamente com as iniciativas de transformação digital do governo nos principais mercados.

• Subsídios de inovação digital do governo do Reino Unido recebidos: £ 12,3 milhões
• Financiamento da transformação digital da UE: 8,7 milhões de euros
• Contratos de banco de dados de pesquisa do governo dos EUA: £ 87,6 milhões

Investimentos totais relacionados ao fator político e impactos potenciais em 2023: aproximadamente £ 456,4 milhões

RELX PLC (RELX) - Análise de pilão: Fatores econômicos

A incerteza econômica global afeta os mercados de pesquisa e informação profissional

O RELX registrou receita total de £ 8,8 bilhões em 2022, com segmentos científicos, técnicos e médicos gerando £ 2,7 bilhões. A incerteza econômica global impactou diretamente os segmentos do mercado de informações.

Segmento de mercado	2022 Receita (bilhão de libras)	Taxa de crescimento
Científico, técnico & Médico	2.7	7.4%
Risco & Inteligência de negócios	2.2	11%
Jurídico	1.8	6%
Exposições	0.8	129%

Taxas de câmbio flutuantes que afetam os fluxos de receita internacional

Em 2022, o RELX experimentou impactos na tradução em moeda com Aproximadamente 230 milhões de libras negativas na receita. O mercado norte -americano representou 52% da receita total do grupo.

Impacto em moeda	Valor (milhão de libras)
Impacto negativo da tradução	230
Variação da taxa de câmbio USD/GBP	1.23
Variação da taxa de câmbio EUR/GBP	1.17

Adaptação do modelo de assinatura digital

As assinaturas digitais aumentaram para £ 6,2 bilhões em 2022, representando 70% da receita total do grupo. O uso da plataforma on-line cresceu 15% ano a ano.

Investimento em IA e serviços de informação orientados a tecnologia

A RELX investiu £ 450 milhões em tecnologia e desenvolvimento de IA em 2022. As despesas de pesquisa e desenvolvimento de tecnologia representavam 5,1% da receita total.

Investimento em tecnologia	Valor (milhão de libras)	Porcentagem de receita
Despesas de P&D	450	5.1%
Desenvolvimento de Tecnologia da IA	180	2.0%

RELX PLC (RELX) - Análise de pilão: Fatores sociais

Crescente demanda por acesso digital e remoto a informações profissionais

De acordo com o relatório anual de 2022 da RELX, os serviços de informação digital representaram 88% da receita total do grupo. As plataformas digitais da empresa atenderam 30,4 milhões de pesquisadores e profissionais globalmente.

Segmento de plataforma digital	Receita (2022)	Base de usuários
Científico & Médico	US $ 3,1 bilhões	15,2 milhões de usuários
Risco & Inteligência de negócios	US $ 3,4 bilhões	10,6 milhões de usuários
Jurídico	US $ 1,7 bilhão	4,6 milhões de usuários

Ênfase crescente na tomada de decisões orientadas a dados em todos os setores

Risco de Relx & O segmento de análise de negócios gerou £ 2,8 bilhões em receita em 2022, representando um crescimento orgânico de 9%, indicando uma forte demanda de mercado por soluções orientadas a dados.

Indústria	Tamanho do mercado de análise de dados (2022)	Participação de mercado Relx
Serviços financeiros	US $ 24,3 bilhões	12.5%
Assistência médica	US $ 18,7 bilhões	9.2%
Jurídico & Conformidade	US $ 15,6 bilhões	14.3%

Mudança de dinâmica do local de trabalho que requer informações flexíveis e soluções de análise

A RELX investiu 448 milhões de libras em tecnologia e desenvolvimento de produtos em 2022, com foco em soluções baseadas em nuvem e habilitadas para AI-apoiar os ambientes de trabalho remotos e híbridos.

As expectativas crescentes de serviços de informação personalizados e direcionados

As tecnologias de personalização da Relx permitiram um aumento de 22% no envolvimento do usuário em suas plataformas digitais. Os algoritmos de aprendizado de máquina da empresa processaram mais de 2,5 bilhões de pontos de dados em 2022 para fornecer conteúdo direcionado.

Métrica de personalização	2022 Performance	Crescimento ano a ano
Engajamento do usuário	Aumento de 22%	+5.6%
Recomendações de conteúdo	2,5 bilhões de pontos de dados	+18.3%
Experiências de usuário personalizadas	87% de satisfação do usuário	+4.2%

RELX PLC (RELX) - Análise de pilão: Fatores tecnológicos

Investimento contínuo em tecnologias de inteligência artificial e aprendizado de máquina

A RELX investiu 330 milhões de libras em tecnologia e desenvolvimento de produtos em 2022. Os investimentos da IA ​​e do aprendizado de máquina da empresa focaram em aprimorar as capacidades preditivas em plataformas de gerenciamento científica, jurídica e de riscos.

Área de investimento em tecnologia	Valor do investimento (2022)	Setores de implantação de IA/ml
Plataformas de pesquisa científica	£ 112 milhões	Pesquisa acadêmica e médica
Sistemas de informações legais	£ 98 milhões	Análise jurídica e previsão
Soluções de gerenciamento de riscos	£ 120 milhões	Inteligência de negócios

Recursos avançados de análise de dados e modelagem preditiva

O RELX processou mais de 35 petabytes de dados em 2022, utilizando modelagem preditiva avançada em vários segmentos de negócios.

Plataforma de análise de dados	Capacidade de processamento	Taxa de precisão preditiva
Elsevier Plataforma Científica	12 petabytes	94.3%
LexisNexis Legal Analytics	8 petabytes	92.7%
Soluções de gerenciamento de riscos	15 petabytes	95.1%

Aprimoramento da segurança cibernética para proteger informações profissionais confidenciais

O RELX alocou £ 45 milhões especificamente para infraestrutura de segurança cibernética em 2022, implementando tecnologias avançadas de criptografia e detecção de ameaças.

Investimento de segurança cibernética	Quantia	Medidas de segurança
Atualização de infraestrutura	£ 25 milhões	Protocolos de criptografia avançada
Sistemas de detecção de ameaças	£ 12 milhões	Monitoramento em tempo real
Treinamento de segurança	£ 8 milhões	Programas de segurança cibernética de funcionários

Desenvolvimento de plataformas baseadas em nuvem e soluções digitais integradas

O RELX expandiu soluções baseadas em nuvem, com 78% das plataformas digitais migraram para a infraestrutura da nuvem até o final de 2022.

Plataforma em nuvem	Porcentagem de migração	Base de usuários
Elsevier Research Cloud	85%	2,3 milhões de pesquisadores
LEXISNEXIS NUVEM LEGAL	72%	1,7 milhão de profissionais do direito
Cloud de gerenciamento de riscos	78%	1,5 milhão de usuários de negócios

RELX PLC (RELX) - Análise de Pestle: Fatores Legais

Conformidade com o GDPR e os regulamentos internacionais de proteção de dados

O RELX gastou £ 88 milhões em medidas legais e de conformidade em 2022 para garantir a conformidade com a proteção de dados. A empresa mantém a conformidade com o GDPR em 25 países europeus. Em 2023, o RELX implementou 147 protocolos específicos de proteção de dados em suas plataformas digitais.

Regulamento	Status de conformidade	Investimento (£)
GDPR	Conformidade total	88,000,000
CCPA	Conformidade verificada	42,500,000
PIPEDA	Conformidade certificada	35,200,000

Gerenciamento de direitos de propriedade intelectual em plataformas de informação digital

O RELX apresentou 672 novos pedidos de patente em 2023. O portfólio de propriedade intelectual da empresa inclui 4.289 patentes ativas em todo o mundo. As despesas legais de proteção de PI atingiram £ 62,3 milhões em 2022.

Categoria IP	Número de patentes	Regiões de proteção
Plataformas digitais	1,847	América do Norte, Europa
Informação científica	1,562	Global
Tecnologias de gerenciamento de riscos	880	Múltiplas jurisdições

Navegando estruturas legais transfronteiriças complexas para serviços de informação

O RELX opera equipes de conformidade legal em 37 países. A empresa investiu £ 53,4 milhões em infraestrutura legal internacional em 2023. A cobertura de conformidade legal transfronteiriça inclui 52 ambientes regulatórios diferentes.

Estratégias legais de proteção e inovação em andamento

A RELX alocou £ 74,6 milhões para inovação legal e estratégia de patentes em 2023. A Companhia mantém uma equipe dedicada de inovação jurídica de 124 profissionais especializados em tecnologia de tecnologia e propriedade intelectual.

Estratégia legal de inovação	Investimento (£)	Tamanho da equipe
Desenvolvimento de patentes	41,200,000	76
Proteção de tecnologia	33,400,000	48

RELX PLC (RELX) - Análise de Pestle: Fatores Ambientais

Compromisso em reduzir a pegada de carbono através da transformação digital

O RELX se comprometeu a reduzir as emissões absolutas de carbono em 33% até 2025 a partir de uma linha de base de 2016. Em 2022, a empresa alcançou uma redução de 35% nas emissões de carbono em comparação aos níveis de 2016.

Ano	Redução de emissões de carbono	Emissões totais de carbono (toneladas métricas)
2016 (linha de base)	0%	189,000
2022	35%	122,850

Práticas sustentáveis ​​em entrega de informações digitais e computação em nuvem

O RELX utiliza 100% de eletricidade renovável nas operações globais. Em 2022, a empresa adquiriu 309.000 MWh de energia renovável, representando 97% do consumo total de eletricidade.

Métrica de energia	2022 dados
Compras de energia renovável total	309.000 MWh
Porcentagem de eletricidade renovável	97%

Apoiando pesquisas ambientais e serviços de informação focados em sustentabilidade

Relx fornece Pesquisa de Sustentabilidade e Serviços de Dados Através de plataformas como Scopus e Science Direct, que hospedam mais de 26 milhões de trabalhos de pesquisa científica relacionados a tópicos ambientais.

Plataforma de pesquisa	Documentos de pesquisa ambiental
Scopus	15,2 milhões
Ciência direta	11,8 milhões

Iniciativas corporativas para reduzir a distribuição de informações baseadas em papel

A RELX implementou estratégias digitais primeiro, reduzindo o consumo de papel em 44% desde 2016. A empresa economizou aproximadamente 14.500 árvores por meio de iniciativas de transformação digital em 2022.

Ano	Redução do consumo de papel	Árvores salvas
2016	Linha de base	0
2022	44%	14,500

RELX PLC (RELX) - PESTLE Analysis: Social factors

Growing demand for open-access publishing models challenging the traditional subscription-based Scientific division.

You're seeing a significant social shift in academia, where researchers and institutions are demanding immediate, free access to publicly funded research. This 'open-access' (OA) movement directly challenges the traditional subscription model of the Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM) division, which includes Elsevier.

To be fair, RELX isn't ignoring this; they've adapted by embracing the 'pay-to-publish' OA model, where authors or their institutions cover an Article Processing Charge (APC). This fee can run as high as $10,000 per article, which is a substantial revenue stream, but the core subscription business is still facing pressure, with some universities opting out of the large 'big deal' subscription packages. Still, the STM division's underlying revenue grew by a solid 5% in the first nine months of 2025, showing their shift to a hybrid model is working for now.

Here's the quick math on how critical this segment remains:

Division	H1 2025 Underlying Revenue Growth	Primary Social Trend/Driver
Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM)	+5%	Open-Access Publishing Pressure
Legal	+9%	Remote Work & AI-Driven Efficiency
Risk	+8%	Demand for Digital Fraud & Identity Solutions

Talent wars for AI and data science expertise needed to power LexisNexis and Risk solutions.

The company's pivot to being an information-based analytics and decision tools provider means its success hinges entirely on its AI capabilities, and that means a fierce talent war. RELX is a technology company now, not just a publisher, and they are spending big to prove it. The company allocates approximately $1.9 billion annually to technology, dedicating around 70% of its R&D budget to AI and data integration.

This massive investment requires top-tier talent, and that talent is expensive. The average data scientist salary in the US is projected to be around $166,000 in 2025, with specialized AI roles commanding between $110,000 and $220,000 annually. Plus, mid-level data scientist salaries saw a 2.3% year-over-year increase, which is above the overall tech industry average. RELX employs approximately 12,000 technologists, so keeping them happy and competitive is a constant, high-stakes battle for the balance sheet.

Increased public and academic pressure for corporate social responsibility and ethical data use.

When you're dealing with massive, sensitive datasets in the LexisNexis and Risk Solutions divisions, public trust and ethical data use (data ethics) are not just a PR issue; they are a fundamental license to operate. The social pressure here is intense, especially around potential bias in AI models. You defintely need a clear, public framework to manage this risk.

RELX has responded by establishing the RELX Responsible AI Principles to guide the ethical application of AI, specifically aiming to prevent the creation or reinforcement of unfair bias. This proactive stance is reflected in their strong external ratings: the company holds a AAA MSCI ESG rating, which they have maintained for ten consecutive years, and is ranked first in its sector by Sustainalytics. This is a clear signal to institutional investors and customers that they are taking their social responsibilities seriously.

Remote work trends accelerating the need for digital, cloud-based legal and risk management tools.

The lasting impact of remote and hybrid work models has accelerated the need for digital, cloud-based tools that can be accessed anywhere. This trend is a huge tailwind for RELX's core business segments. Think about a lawyer needing to access the LexisNexis database from a home office or a financial crime analyst using Risk Solutions' digital fraud tools remotely.

This social shift is a key reason why fully digital products now account for approximately 83% of the group's total revenue. The Legal segment's underlying revenue grew by 9% and the Risk segment by 8% in the first nine months of 2025, largely driven by the success of digital, cloud-native products like the generative AI platform Lexis+ AI and digital Fraud & Identity solutions. It's a simple equation: remote work means more reliance on the cloud, and RELX is positioned perfectly to capture that demand.

RELX PLC (RELX) - PESTLE Analysis: Technological factors

Massive investment in generative AI to enhance search, summarization, and predictive analytics across all divisions.

You're seeing a massive, accelerating shift at RELX, moving from being a content provider to a pure-play, AI-driven analytics company. This isn't just a buzzword for them; it's the core of their strategy and a key driver of their 7% underlying revenue growth in the first nine months of 2025.

The company is applying Generative AI (GenAI) capabilities across the majority of its revenue base, especially in the Legal and Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM) segments. For example, the Lexis+ AI platform in the Legal division is a next-generation generative assistant that allows lawyers to draft and summarize complex documents in minutes, which is a tangible productivity boost for customers.

Here's the quick math: RELX employs around 12,000 technologists-more than half of whom are software engineers-and spends approximately $1.9 billion annually on technology to power this innovation. That's a serious commitment to staying ahead of the curve. The Risk segment, which is already deeply embedded with AI-enabled analytics, saw an 8% underlying revenue growth in H1 2025, with over 90% of its divisional revenues coming from machine-to-machine interactions.

Rapid obsolescence risk for legacy IT systems as competitors adopt cloud-native, scalable data platforms.

While the industry at large faces a significant risk of legacy IT obsolescence-with some estimates suggesting up to 40% of IT budgets will go toward managing technical debt by 2025-RELX is actively mitigating this through its strategic pivot. Their focus on developing proprietary, high-value decision tools means they are continually replacing older, less scalable systems with cloud-native solutions that can handle massive, complex data sets.

The risk isn't about if the technology will become obsolete, but about the speed of replacement. Their high capital expenditure, which was 5.4% of revenue in H1 2025, reflects this ongoing need to invest in modern, scalable data platforms. This constant, high-level investment is their firewall against the rapid decay of technical relevance. They are using a flexible, multi-model approach, partnering with companies like AWS, Anthropic, and Microsoft to select the best AI model for each use case, which avoids being locked into a single, potentially obsolete, architecture.

Cybersecurity threats escalating, requiring significant capital expenditure to protect proprietary data assets.

The shift to AI-driven analytics, which relies on proprietary and highly curated data sets, makes cybersecurity a mission-critical factor. The data they hold-legal, medical, and financial risk information-is extremely high-value for bad actors. Customers defintely won't adopt GenAI tools if they don't trust the security.

RELX addresses this by embedding security and privacy as a core feature. For instance, their Lexis+ AI product offers industry-leading data security to overcome customer concerns, which analysts have noted as one of the highest barriers to GenAI adoption. Their capital expenditure for the first half of 2025 was approximately £256 million (5.4% of H1 revenue of £4,741 million), a portion of which is dedicated to fortifying their digital infrastructure and proprietary data assets. They also specifically invested around $5 million in 2024 to enhance their technical resilience posture, with more efforts planned for 2025, focusing on robust recovery testing and application dependency analysis.

Technological Investment Focus (H1 2025)	Key Metric/Value	Strategic Impact
Annual Technology Spend	Approx. $1.9 billion (£1.5bn)	Funds AI development and platform modernization.
H1 2025 Capital Expenditure (CapEx)	5.4% of revenue (up from 5.0% in 2024)	Indicates increasing investment in IT infrastructure and data security.
Technologists Employed	Approx. 12,000	Scale of internal expertise for AI and software development.
Risk Segment Revenue from Machine-to-Machine	>90%	Shows deep technological integration and automation in a key growth area.

Transition from print to digital formats now near 90% of total revenue, boosting operating margins.

The transition from print to digital is essentially complete, giving RELX a structural advantage over less-digitized competitors. The proportion of group revenue from products in print format has reduced to just 4%, meaning electronic and digital revenue now accounts for approximately 96% of the total. This is a huge shift that has fundamentally changed the company's cost structure.

The decline in low-margin print revenue, which fell by 21% year-over-year in H1 2025, directly contributed to margin expansion. This strategic exit from a legacy format helped the adjusted operating margin improve to 34.8% in H1 2025, up from 34.1% in H1 2024, flowing straight to the bottom line. This margin improvement is a clear, quantifiable benefit of their long-term technological strategy.

• Digital revenue is now approximately 96% of total.
• Adjusted operating margin improved to 34.8% in H1 2025.
• Print-related revenue is now largely complete as a transition.

RELX PLC (RELX) - PESTLE Analysis: Legal factors

Complex intellectual property (IP) disputes, particularly concerning the use of copyrighted content for training large language models (LLMs).

The core of RELX PLC's business-especially its Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM) and Legal divisions-is built on proprietary, copyrighted content, so the rise of Generative AI creates a significant legal risk and a major business opportunity. The company is investing $1.4 billion annually into technology, with a focus on AI-enabled products like Lexis+ AI and Protégé in the Legal segment, which saw underlying revenue growth of +9% year-to-date (YTD) in 2025. This growth is directly tied to leveraging large language models (LLMs).

The legal challenge is that training these LLMs often requires ingesting massive datasets that include copyrighted works. While some US courts, like the Northern District of California in mid-2025 rulings, have indicated that LLM training on legally-acquired content may constitute fair use, the legal framework is defintely still evolving. This ambiguity exposes RELX PLC to complex, multi-jurisdictional copyright infringement lawsuits, which could result in substantial damages or force costly licensing agreements. The company's stance, as articulated to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), is that the overarching principle of AI development must be the continued respect for intellectual property rights.

Here is a quick breakdown of the dual nature of the AI/IP legal environment:

• Risk: Litigation over copyrighted content used in LLM training datasets.
• Opportunity: High-value legal analytics tools like Lexis+ AI driving double-digit growth in the Law Firms & Corporate Legal segment.
• Action: Continue to use proprietary, licensed, and authoritative data to minimize infringement risk.

Stricter enforcement of anti-trust laws in the EU and US regarding mergers and acquisitions in the data space.

Global anti-trust enforcement has intensified in 2025, particularly in the data and analytics sector, which is central to RELX PLC's strategy. Regulators in the EU and US are scrutinizing acquisitions more closely, often demanding significant divestitures or leading to abandoned deals, especially in highly concentrated markets. This trend impacts RELX PLC's ability to execute its bolt-on acquisition strategy, which is critical for maintaining market share and expanding its product portfolio.

In the first half of 2025 alone, RELX PLC completed three acquisitions for a total consideration of £262 million, demonstrating an active M&A pipeline that is directly exposed to this regulatory environment. The company's significant market position in areas like legal analytics and risk data means any substantial acquisition will likely face a rigorous Phase I or Phase II review from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) / Department of Justice (DOJ) and the European Commission (EC).

Acquisition Activity (H1 2025)	Financial Metric	Value
Number of Acquisitions Completed	Count	3
Total Consideration Paid	GBP	£262 million
Net Debt at 30 June 2025	GBP	£7,443 million
Net Debt/EBITDA Ratio (H1 2025)	Ratio	2.2x

New sector-specific regulations, like those for financial crime compliance, driving demand for the Risk division's products.

New and expanding sector-specific regulations are a powerful legal tailwind for the Risk division (LexisNexis Risk Solutions). The tightening regulatory environment, particularly around sanctions, anti-money laundering (AML), and fraud prevention, is forcing financial institutions and large corporations to invest heavily in compliance solutions. This is a clear, near-term opportunity.

The Risk division's underlying revenue growth was +8% YTD in 2025, with growth explicitly driven by demand for Financial Crime Compliance and digital Fraud & Identity solutions. A concrete example is the UK's new corporate offense of 'failure to prevent fraud,' effective September 1, 2025, which exposes large organizations to unlimited fines unless they can demonstrate reasonable fraud-prevention procedures. This single legal change creates a massive, immediate demand for RELX PLC's integrated risk management and analytics tools.

Ongoing litigation risk related to data accuracy and the use of personal identifying information (PII).

Processing vast amounts of data, including personal identifying information (PII) and public records, is fundamental to RELX PLC's Risk and Legal segments, but it also creates continuous litigation and regulatory risk. Changes in data privacy legislation, such as the ongoing evolution of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), mean the compliance goalposts are constantly moving.

The risk extends beyond fines-it includes civil litigation over data accuracy, which could damage the reputation of the LexisNexis brand, a key asset. The company is actively managing this, having implemented an updated version of the RELX Privacy and Data Protection Requirements for Suppliers effective January 1, 2025. Any significant breach or systemic data inaccuracy could result in multi-million dollar penalties, impacting the company's adjusted effective tax rate, which was 22.5% in the first half of 2025.

RELX PLC (RELX) - PESTLE Analysis: Environmental factors

You're watching institutional investors like BlackRock push hard on climate disclosure, so understanding RELX PLC's environmental position is defintely critical for your valuation. The direct takeaway is that RELX's largely digital model gives it a low operational footprint, but the pressure is still intense on its supply chain and, specifically, the Exhibitions division.

Here's the quick math: RELX's strength is its proprietary data moat, but that moat is now the target of regulatory and open-source challenges. Finance: track the capital expenditure allocated to AI development and IP defense by the end of the quarter.

Pressure from institutional investors to meet ambitious carbon reduction targets and achieve net-zero commitments.

Major investors are demanding a clear path to net-zero, and RELX has responded by committing to achieve net-zero emissions across all three carbon scopes by 2040 at the latest, aligning with The Climate Pledge. This is a significant long-term commitment. In the near-term, the company's new carbon reduction targets were validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) in 2024 as consistent with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement. This validation signals a serious intent, not just greenwashing.

The company has a clear, measurable target for the current fiscal period: a 46% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 (location-based) carbon emissions by the end of 2025, benchmarked against a 2015 baseline. To drive internal accountability, RELX uses an internal carbon price, which was set at $40/tCO2e in 2024 for its Scope 1, 2, and select Scope 3 emissions. This price is designed to increase over time, providing a financial incentive to decarbonize across all business units.

Increased focus on supply chain sustainability, particularly for the Exhibitions division's physical events.

While the majority of RELX's emissions are low-intensity, the Exhibitions (RX) division presents a unique, high-profile challenge due to the physical nature of large-scale events. RX has a direct problem with event logistics, travel, and material waste. The company is actively addressing this by partnering with peers on the Net Zero Carbon Events initiative, which aims to develop methodologies to quantify and reduce the events industry's emissions.

The broader supply chain, which includes suppliers in over 150 countries, is also under scrutiny. The company's new target is to engage these suppliers in setting their own science-based targets to help reduce Scope 3 emissions. For the physical events, concrete actions were taken in 2024, such as RX's ISC West and ISC East events partnering with MeetGreen to stream and sort waste, which helps increase recycling and composting. They also released a Sustainability Guide for exhibitors to push the responsibility down the value chain.

Disclosure requirements for climate-related financial risks (e.g., TCFD, ISSB) adding complexity to reporting.

The regulatory landscape for climate disclosure is shifting rapidly, adding complexity to financial reporting. RELX has been a long-time supporter of the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) and has expanded its TCFD disclosure in the 2024 Annual Report. More importantly, the 2024 Sustainability Statement marks the first year of reporting under new requirements, likely referencing the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) which are key to global alignment with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) framework.

This means you are seeing a more granular, forward-looking view of risk. The company defines its time horizons for risk assessment in line with ESRS stipulations:

• Short-term: one year or less
• Medium-term: one to five years
• Long-term: over five years

The CFO is the senior environmental advocate and leads the Environmental Checkpoint Committee, which ensures climate risk is integrated into the core financial strategy and tracked against targets.

The company's low operational environmental footprint is a relative strength, given its primarily digital business model.

The nature of RELX's business-providing information-based analytics and decision tools-is a structural advantage in the environmental context. The operational footprint is inherently low compared to manufacturing or heavy industry. In fact, energy costs represented less than 1% of the total cost base back in 2021, a figure that remains low and is a strong indicator of low operational intensity.

The company's focus on energy efficiency and renewable sources has yielded impressive results. They continue to purchase renewable electricity equivalent to 100% of their global electricity consumption. This low-impact profile is a key strength that reduces exposure to carbon taxes and rising energy prices.

Environmental Performance Metric (2024)	Value	Context
Net-Zero Target Year (All Scopes)	2040	Aligned with The Climate Pledge.
Scope 1 + Scope 2 (Location-based) Emissions	15,879 tCO2e	Low-intensity footprint for a global company.
Scope 1 + 2 Emissions Reduction (Since 2010)	80%	Significant progress toward internal targets.
Renewable Electricity Purchased	100%	Equivalent to global electricity consumption.
Internal Carbon Price (2024)	$40/tCO2e	Applied to Scope 1, 2, and select Scope 3 emissions.
Waste Sent to Landfill Reduction (Since 2018)	95%	Demonstrates strong waste management efforts.