December 2024 Webinar: COP29 Recap: Aligning Climate Finance with Global Needs

Mahlet Eyassu Melkie is a senior associate with the Climate Finance Access Network at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). She contributes to CFAN’s thought leadership work by performing research and analysis on the challenges and opportunities faced by Small Island States and Least Developed countries in accessing finance. Mahlet supports CFAN leadership in the development and execution of  monitoring and evaluation frameworks and supports stakeholder engagement and management.

Mahlet has more than 10 years of experience in environment and development and climate change. She has mostly worked on national climate change adaptation and mitigation policy planning in Ethiopia and has worked on the United Nations Convention on Climate Change negotiations with a special focus on climate finance. She has been supporting least developed countries in forming positions in the climate negotiations. Additionally, Mahlet served as an adviser to least developed country board members to the Green Climate Fund from 2014–2021. Her experience includes policy analysis, research, and training.

Anders A. L. Rodenberg is the CEO of Denominator, the leading global provider of corporate Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) data and ratings for companies, investors, NGOs, and governments.

Prior to joining Denominator, Anders managed teams in Europe and was the Head of Financial Institutions & Advisory in North- and South America for Moody’s Analytics data division. Anders is an experienced speaker at conferences around the world and often used as a subject matter expert within global data for risk management, growth expansion and everything related to DEI. He was recently invited to speak at COP26 in Glasgow about the Social aspect of ESG as well as various sessions in connection with World Economic Forum.

Anders currently lives in New York but is originally from Denmark and Sweden.

Isabella Massa is a Senior Manager at the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) in Paris, leading the work on SDG Financing and Vulnerability. She has extensive policy-oriented research experience with respect to African countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Prior to joining SDSN, Isabella was an independent consultant and previously worked at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London, where she led the international finance stream of work. She also worked as an Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and as a researcher and instructor in different universities. Isabella has published in prestigious academic journals and authored various books and book chapters. She holds a PhD in Economics and Organization from Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, and a MSc degree in Financial Markets and Intermediaries from the Toulouse School of Economics.

Kale Roberts is Deputy Director at ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability's United States Office, where he leads advocacy, working within the United Nations’ Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) major group, the U.S. State Department, and other partners. Over the past 8 years, he has provided technical assistance to more than 400 cities on climate action planning, SDG-alignment, biodiversity, and sustainability planning. He is a former member of the ISSP team! He worked for a couple years with Alex and Michelle to provide communications and partnerships support. His previous roles include working at the United Nations Development Programme in the Asia-Pacific region and with the U.S. Peace Corps.