The banking giant has just appointed a 20-year SRI heavyweight to head climate investment research in a new position that will further pave the asset manager’s path to low carbon investing.

BNP Paribas' asset management arm has created the new post of climate change research head, a move underscoring how such firms are tapping concerns about global warming as part of their investment and branding.

Mark Lewis, former Barclays and Deutsche bank analyst and head of research at independent think tank Carbon Tracker will join BNP Paribas AM's Paris-based climate policy team on 7 January, where he will report to the group’s sustainability head, Jane Ambachtsheer.

Ambachtsheer is another recent influential hire, joining in August to lead the division’s global impact investment strategy. In 2006, she worked with the UN to set up the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), whose signatories now account for $70 trillion in global AuM.

The bank said that Lewis' new post will “provide an authoritative view on developments within climate change and energy transition", and how they affect “current and future investment decision-making."

Lewis will be responsible for analysing energy finance and regulatory developments for the bank, building a framework to identify and monitor climate-risk across portfolios, and conducting sector and company research for insights on specific risks and opportunities, a statement said.

He will also engage with company management to encourage them to adopt the 5-year goals of the investor-led Climate Action 100+, in addition to helping direct climate-related research and reporting to steer capital toward more sustainable assets.

Lewis, who started out as an academic, has more than 20 years’ experience as a financial analyst covering energy and environmental markets. Before Carbon Tracker, he was MD and head of European utilities research at Barclays, chief energy economist at Kepler Cheuvreux and MD and head of carbon research at Deutsche bank.

He was also a member of the Financial Stability Board’s task force on climate-related financial disclosures from May 2016 to May 2018.

Ambachtsheer said that climate change was presenting investors with “both risks and opportunities”, and Lewis’ “expertise” on the financial impact of climate change would be “invaluable” to the group, which manages around €35 billion ($39.5 million) in SRI investments for clients.

The Paris-listed bank has made a point of using its financial muscle to achieve certain ends around the environment, health and governance. For example, in March this year it widened its list of banned investments to cover the tobacco trade.