Mitigating climate risk is mounting for the industry. Those on the front lines of standardizing just how this is done are adding industry firepower to advance progress.

Impax Asset Management’s founder and chief executive Ian Simm is joining the board of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change. The IIGCC announced his appointment along with four other sustainability business leaders at its AGM in London yesterday.

The group, which has 190 plus members representing collectively more than €28 trillion in assets managed, said that the seniority of the new appointees showed "the importance being placed on climate change by the investment community and the impact of IIGCC in addressing the issue.” Its mission is to drive momentum for a net zero emmissions future.

Recognizing the systemic risk climate change poses to the financial sector, the IIGCC has been developing standards to enable managers to evaluate the material risk implications of their holdings. The group is often in lockstep with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), another force drawn from industry heavyweights urging corporations and asset managers to deliver climate-related financial risk disclosures as standard practice.

New board members joining Simm from across European asset management circles include Jelle van der Giessen from NN Group; Roelfien Kuijpers from DWS: Karlijn van Lierop from Dutch group MN; and Udo Riese from Allianz Investment Management SE.

At the meeting, the investors collective said that 33 new members have joined in the past year, including sector names that have added €7 trillion in assets represented. Impax Asset Management has been in the sustainable investment space for more than two decades and a IIGCC member for 15 years.

Simm said he was "honoured" to join the board. "At a time when climate change is rising rapidly up the agenda for everyone on the planet, those managing the savings and pensions of hundreds of millions of people are working hard to understand its implications for future prosperity. As one of the most influential voices in this debate, the IIGCC is in the vanguard of helping investors understand the issues and develop smart responses.

“I look forward to adding my voice to those of fellow IIGCC board members and experienced industry colleagues as the IIGCC looks to guide the investment community through a period of unprecedented risk but also great opportunity."