Mark Lewis is Global Head of Sustainability Research at BNP Paribas Asset Management, having joined in January 2019. Previously, he was Managing Director and Head of Research at the Carbon Tracker Initiative (April-December 2018), Managing Director and Head of European Utilities Research at Barclays (2015-18), Chief Energy Economist at Kepler Cheuvreux (2014-15), and Managing Director and Global Head of Energy Research at Deutsche Bank (2005-13). He has also been a member of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures since May 2016.

Mark is a UK and French Citizen and holds a BA (First-Class Hons) in Modern Languages and Economics from Sheffield University, an MPhil from Cambridge University, and an MA from London University.

Mark joins Sustainable Nation to discuss:

• Process of integrating ESG metrics into portfolio evaluation

• Importance of weighting E, S, and G differently for each sector

• Current status of the TCFD and its evolvement

• Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders

Mark's final five question responses:

What is one piece of advice you'd give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?

Never give up. I think in fact, you know, one thing I say a lot these days is every single day gets easier to make the case because the economics have changed fundamentally in the last five years. I feel now as if we're pushing on an open door, that door was only very slightly ajar 15 years ago. And we've had to do a lot of pushing over the last 15 years, but it's really opening up now and we just need more people to join in and keep pushing and keep developing. I'm much more optimistic than I was 10 years ago that we can build a better world. It's not to say it's guaranteed, but it's in our hands. The technology is there. We need policy makers to develop and for that we need as much enthusiasm and human energy as possible to keep pressing forward. So never give up and keep pushing.

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?

I mean, for me personally it's just the tremendous possibilities that are opening up with energy storage and also hydrogen is back on the agenda because I think, you know, renewables can only get you so far if you don't have a way of storing, solar and wind energy. And I think the good news is we're starting to see breakthroughs in the cost of storage. Europe has just launched a very big incentive program for hydrogen as well, which can be used both as a source of storage and as an energy source in its own. Right. So to me, that's the next phase of the energy revolution is really being able to combine storage with wind and solar energy, so that we can decarbonize the global energy system completely within the next three, hopefully three, maybe four decades.

What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read?

Yeah, sorry again, to focus on the energy side, this is, you know, showing my own bias, but a really great book, relatively recent, I guess it is three or four years old now, is the Zero Marginal Cost of Society by Jeremy Rifkin. I think that's a fantastic read.

What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?

Well there are so many, on the energy side there's a lot of publicly available data from the International Energy Agency and from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). World resources Institute is an unending source of knowledge and insight. I think WRI is just a fantastic, fantastic tool. So those would be three that spring to mind that I regularly look at. Carbon Tracker. I've gotta give a shout out to Carbon Tracker. You know, I spent nine months there in 2018 as the head of research. It's the most fantastic think tank on climate change and aligning financial markets with the challenge of achieving the Paris agreement.

Mark, where can our listeners go to learn more about you and your work?

Well, you know, we have a website, the BNP Paribas Asset Management website. And, you know, if I may indulge your listeners, you know, I can be contacted on LinkedIn. I post regularly about my work and about interesting trends that I'm seeing and you can follow me on Twitter @MCL1965.