Lise leads sustainability analysis at Danish fintech company Matter, specialized in sustainable investments. With a background in sustainable finance, corporate sustainability, and financial journalism across Asia, Africa, and the UK, and extensive experience from WWF’s work on climate water and biodiversity, she has supported banks, asset managers and regulators in integrating science based analysis for sustainable finance. She is responsible for developing all of matters methods and frameworks, and data solutions she helps design are currently used to analyse EUR +700bn in AUM by asset managers and owners across Asia, Europe and North America. She serves as a non-executive director for South Africa's leading shareholder activism organisation Just Share.
Hall C (Level 2)
Elevating ESG
The tide of global ESG investments has slowed in recent years, with 2024 marking the first year of net outflows from sustainability-focused equity funds. This trend is driven by accusations of a lack of clarity about whether the invested dollars are truly promoting sustainability; investigations suggest that only slightly more than half of this spending is directed towards sustainable companies. This shift is accompanied by a renewed focus on economic profit, as investors grow weary of the "politicisation of ESG".
Is there still a strong case for ESG or sustainability-focused investment? What works, what doesn’t, and what needs fixing?