Luxembourg, 24 October 2022 — The European Commission (EC) has appointed Thede Rüst, Head of Emerging Market Debt at Nordea Asset Management.(NAM), to a High-Level Expert Group to advise on how to scale up sustainable finance in low and middle-income countries.
The establishment of this group, announced in the Strategy for Financing the Transition to a Sustainable Economy, drew a very high number of applications from civil society, academia, the business and finance community and other non-public sector institutions. From the applicant pool, the EC selected 20 senior, high-level experts.

Rüst heads up the eleven member Emerging Markets Debt team. He joined NAM in 2014 and became a member of the UNPRI Fixed Income Advisory Committee in 2018. He has an extensive international background including work experiences in Emerging Markets such as South Africa and Afghanistan, as well as, at the United Nations in New York. Rüst and his team currently manage Emerging Markets fixed income solutions both in hard currency and local currency as well as sovereigns and corporates.

Rüst’s team aims to select investments that have a positive impact on the planet and societies where it sees values related to both ESG and financial risk. The team believes that a bottom-up selected portfolio composed of sustainable holdings can outperform broad market weighted benchmarks over the medium to long term.1

“I am extremely excited to be appointed as a member to the High-Level Expert Group of the European Commission to scale up sustainable finance in low and middle-income countries. At a time when the multiple global crises are taking a heavy toll on the global economy, overturning years of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), helping partner countries in accessing finance for their sustainable infrastructure projects is critical to a global recovery. We need to take the next step past exclusion and towards engagement. Our job now is to recognize the unique challenges emerging markets face and provide capital for transition.”

Thede Rüst, Head of Emerging Markets Debt at Nordea Asset Management

The group’s task is to identify over the next nine months how the EC could in a “Team Europe approach” contribute to bringing about the needed financing from the private sector for the massive investments required to tackle the most pressing global challenges and ensure sustainable development. The recommendations, expected to be presented around mid-2023, will inform a comprehensive Commission strategy to scale up sustainable finance in low- and middle-income countries. The strategy will be instrumental to bridge the investment gap in partner countries and to implement the EU Global Gateway strategy.