BNP Paribas AM Launches New Global Sustainability Strategy Following AXA IM Acquisition

BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM) announced today the release of its new Global Sustainability Strategy (GSS), the first major update since more than doubling the size of its business through the 2025 acquisition of AXA Investment Managers.

The new GSS sets out the investment manager’s multi-year approach to integrating sustainability considerations into its investments and operations, and indicates an increased focus on transition finance and investment – including plans to publish updated Net Zero targets to clarify its strategy on transition topics.

The new document updates BNPP AM’s sustainability strategy from 2023, following the acquisition of AXA IM in 2025, creating a top-10 global asset manager with more than €1.7 trillion (USD$1.9 trillion) in assets under management. BNPP AM said that with the launch of the new strategy it will use its global scale across listed and alternative assets to address systemic risks, capture investment opportunities and support the real economy.

Jane Ambachtsheer, Chief Sustainability Officer at BNPP AM, said:

“Sustainability is a key enabler of our strategy and investment philosophy. It helps us understand risk, identify opportunity and build resilient portfolios for clients over the long term.”

BNPP AM’s strategy sets out six pillars for integrating sustainability across investment research, due diligence, governance and stewardship, including forward-looking perspective, ESG research and due diligence, stewardship, exclusions, sustainability-focused products and solutions, and “walking the talk.” Key priorities included in the framework include aligning sustainability research more closely with investment and client needs, combining qualitative and quantitative insights to identify long-term value drivers and risks that traditional financial analysis may not capture, strengthening risk management and encouraging issuers to improve their sustainability practices, and providing robust governance and transparent roadmaps, including for net-zero operations and human-rights issues.

The strategy highlights three broad and interconnected themes that will guide BNPP AM’s research, including Transition, Sustainable AI, focused on how artificial intelligence can be developed, deployed and governed to support long-term sustainable development while managing its environmental, social and governance risks, and One Health, examining how companies, assets and public systems contribute to, or are exposed to, the influence of health issues on economic productivity, labor participation, public expenditure, consumer demand and the resilience of communities and economies

On the transition front, the document notes that “the ‘elephant in the room’ remains the financing needed to help high-emissions companies to transition to low-carbon business models,” while also noting the need to consider transitions in areas beyond energy, “including adaptation to physical climate change, nature transition and a just transition.” BNPP AM said that it will publish updated Net Zero targets to clarify its strategy on transition topics, and that it is also working on Nature and Just Transition Frameworks in collaboration with industry partners.

The new document also outlines four key megatrends identified by BNPP AM that will guide its identification of emerging risks and opportunities, including Environment, encompassing climate, nature, pollution and resource constraints that affect asset resilience, operating costs and the feasibility of growth; Geopolitics, focusing on policy, trade, security and international cooperations that shape access to resources, technologies and capital; Demographics, considering the impact of ageing, urbanization, migration, household formation, skills and inequality on demand, labor supply, fiscal capacity and social expectations, and; Innovation, with technology unlocking new solutions and business models, while readiness, scaling, access, governance and rebound effects also determining outcomes.

Key upcoming milestones highlighted in the new document include the publication of an updated Net Zero strategy later this year, and the rollout of updated ESG methodologies and an updated Nature Strategy in 2027.

BNPP AM CEO Sandro Pierri said:

“The world in which our clients invest is being reshaped by powerful structural forces: environmental pressures, demographic shifts, geopolitical fragmentation and rapid innovation. These forces create risks that traditional financial analysis may not fully capture. They also create opportunities for investors with a disciplined, long-term and forward-looking approach.

“Our Global Sustainability Strategy presents how we intend to respond.”

Click here to access BNP Paribas AM’s new Global Sustainability Strategy.