FELLOWS

Holly Honglin Li, Esq.
Holly Honglin Li, Esq.

Holly is an environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) expert, a sustainable finance specialist, a licensed attorney in New York, and an independent consultant. She has been working with the World Bank and IFC for over a decade, with a focus on ESG safeguards and impact investment projects. Before that, she spearheaded a legal education exchange program at Yale University, served as a Board member for the Professional Association for China’s Environment, and worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council to promote US energy and environmental laws. She has a Master of Law from New York University, a Master of Public Policy from George Washington University, and a Bachelor of Law from Sun Yat-Sen University.

Holly has been working on promoting sustainable finance policy design and implementation in the emerging markets, both from the ESG perspective and the climate/green finance perspective. She provided policy recommendations for developing country regulators and was in the core team for the IFC Performance Standard update. Her expertise has also contributed to World Bank and IFC project operations in Africa and Asia, with a focus on ESG, financial inclusion and digital finance. Holly has authored/co-authored 7 peer-reviewed publications, including for the Environmental Law Report, the Chinese Economic Reviews, and the World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Series.

At ISEP, Holly seeks to explore and strengthen the synergy between promoting ESG best practices in the private sector and strengthening sustainable finance policy in the public sector.