Biden picks Brian Deese to lead National Economic Council, signaling focus on climate and economic recovery.

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has officially selected Brian Deese, who played a leading role in bailing out the automotive industry and negotiating the Paris climate agreement under President Barack Obama, to head the National Economic Council, his transition team said Thursday.

The appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, highlights Mr. Biden’s plans to use economic policy initiatives to drive climate policy. It also defies pre-emptive criticism from some environmental groups, who have targeted Mr. Deese for his work in recent years as the sustainability director for asset-management giant BlackRock.

Mr. Deese joins a slate of Biden appointees to top economic positions, announced earlier this week, that includes the nomination of Janet L. Yellen as Treasury secretary, Neera Tanden to be director of the Office of Management and Budget and Cecilia Rouse to head the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Mr. Deese said in written statement that his immediate focus “will be on stemming this crisis, getting people back to work, and fighting to deliver the support American families desperately need — including rental and mortgage assistance, child care and paid leave, and small business relief.”

He also said that as the economy recovers, Mr. Biden’s economic team would work to fulfill the president-elect’s broader agenda for rebuilding infrastructure and supporting job creation and wage growth, “from restoring American industrial and manufacturing strength to embedding climate solutions in an ambitious jobs strategy.”

Mr. Deese joined the Obama administration as a special assistant to the president based in the National Economic Council, where he helped craft the bailout of large American automakers. In 2015, he became a senior adviser to Mr. Obama on climate change and energy, helping drive sweeping regulations cutting emissions from the electricity sector and from vehicle tailpipes as the United States prepared to join the Paris agreement on global warming.

But Mr. Deese’s post-Obama administration role as global head of sustainable investing at the BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has drawn criticism from many environmental activists on the left, who say the company has not gone far enough to abandon fossil fuels.