LAURENCE PESSEZ
LAURENCE PESSEZ
TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY
COMPANY: BNP PARIBAS
INDUSTRY: BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES
LOCATION: PARIS, FRANCE
Laurence has led BNP Paribas’ CSR and sustainability strategy since 2010. A veteran sustainability executive, she has helped embed climate, biodiversity and responsible finance priorities across the group. to focus on low carbon energies and to be identified in space as a go-to bank for low carbon technologies.”
The balance of environmental action and profitability did once sit at the heart of banking debate, where the industry’ s back-and-forth argued whether sustainability and profitability could coexist. The new one, however, asks whether institutions that fail to move will find themselves shut out of the fastestgrowing parts of the real economy.
BNP Paribas has also built operational machinery to support that shift. Its climate and energy-transition framework, for example, includes a dedicated lowcarbon transition group, which the bank says is designed to support clients across geographies as they adapt their business models. Because transition finance cannot scale on the basis of policy alone, this is of the utmost importance – transition finance needs relationship banking, sector expertise and client support that can translate targets into deployable capital.
Allianz’ s approach is different, although centred on a similar discipline. In insurance, the core challenge is how to prevent climate risk from impacting the market itself rather than where to invest capital. fintechmagazine. com 99