The man credited for coining "ESG" - environmental, social and governance - considers US President Donald Trump the ideal advertisement for responsible investment.
Paul Clements-Hunt, a former United Nations official, said the Republican leader was illustrative of the pitfalls of "getting economics wrong" by fuelling social inequality.
"Trump is the best possible advert for ESG, particularly the "G" at the governance level," he told a sustainable investment forum on Wednesday.
The Blended Capital Group chief executive officer was pressed for his views on the percolating ESG backlash at the two-day Responsible Investment Association Australasia conference in Sydney.
He spoke alongside Maria Lettini, chief executive officer at the US Sustainable Investment Forum and on the front line of the anti-ESG sentiment taking root in America.
Ms Lettini said it was hard to keep up with efforts in the US to unwind and undermine climate change and ESG polices, such as potential roll-backs to renewable and clean tech incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Asked if responsible investment advocates were doing enough to defend ESG as a useful lens for delivering risk-adjusted returns, Ms Lettini recommended going "back to basics" on communication.
"We need basic data, we are responding to clients wishes, we're responding to our fiduciary duty obligations," she said.
"And it sounds a bit rolling back a couple of decades to be very dry with our responses, but that's what we are doing more."
University of Melbourne professor of US politics Timothy Lynch was critical of ESG, describing it as a "terrible advert for what it is trying to do", reliant on "huge subsidy" and "management by elites".
Prof Lynch posited the popular perception of ESG was of elites taking up incentives for clean energy while "forgetting the lived experience of many people that don't benefit".
"It's too much concern with posturing and less with economic realities," he said.
Mr Clements-Hunt said responsible investment was about identifying for-profit business models that delivered impact, including sanitation and clean energy in Sub-Saharan Africa.
"I can't agree with that suggestion of lecturing to poor people," Mr Clements-Hunt countered.
ESG was never intended as a political slogan to appeal to ordinary people, he said, but rather devised to change cultures within asset owner organisations.
"It was just to ask the question, how do these systemic risks chew up your capital? And how do you unlock value in the long term?"
Mr Clements-Hunt said it had largely "done its job" and was now embedded into the prudential oversight system and other financial frameworks.
