Saphira Rekker

Dr Saphira Rekker is a Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Sustainable Finance and an ARC DECRA Fellow at The University of Queensland Business School. She holds a PhD in Finance and is internationally recognised for her work on corporate climate performance measurement and the development of science-based emissions reduction methodologies.

Saphira’s research focuses on building robust tools to measure, verify, and benchmark the credibility of corporate decarbonisation actions and commitments. She is widely regarded for her expertise in carbon-budget-based assessment frameworks and corporate climate benchmarking. During her 2019 secondment at Princeton University, she co-developed the Rapid Switch Australia project within Princeton’s global Rapid Switch initiative. She now leads the Carbon Budget Tracker, a collaborative platform linking researchers from UQ, Oxford, Princeton, LSE, and Utrecht to assess corporate and portfolio alignment with the Paris Agreement.

Saphira contributes her expertise to major international standard-setting and policy processes. She serves as an Australian delegate to the ISO Net Zero standard and previously served on both the Scientific Advisory Group and the Technical Working Group of the Science Based Targets initiative (oil and gas), where she contributed to the development of methodologies underpinning credible, science-aligned targets. Although the SAG was dissolved in 2024/2025, she remains engaged in methodological guidance and advisory work for science-based target-setting. She also played a significant role in shaping the EU Climate Benchmarking Regulation, where her quantitative contribution remains a central component after multiple revisions. In addition, she advises on climate-related litigation, including work with the Environmental Defenders Office.

Her research is cross-disciplinary and published in leading academic journals including Nature Climate Change and Nature Communications. Her 2022 Nature Communications article attracted international attention and led to a collaboration with Norges Bank Investment Management, one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, to evaluate steel-sector Paris alignment. Her recent Nature Climate Change Comment proposes “structured pluralism with budget compliance” as a way to strengthen corporate climate benchmarking practices. She maintains active collaborations with Oxford, Princeton, LSE, and Utrecht, as well as industry partners such as Fidelity, Ernst & Young, and NBIM.

Saphira has received numerous awards and competitive funding, including the prestigious ARC DECRA (over $430,000, 2024–2027), the 2024 UQ BEL Commendation for Enhancing Employability and the UQ Business School Award for Excellence in Student Engagement (for SMIF), the Green Gown Awards Australasia 2022 and UQBS Excellence in Innovation Award 2021 for co-founding Australia’s first Carbon Literacy course, the Business & Society Best Paper Award (2021), the UQBS Excellence in PRME Award (2023), first place in the UN PRI Essay Competition (2018), and a UQ Teaching Award (2017).

She is deeply committed to embedding sustainability into finance education. Saphira co-led UQ’s Student Managed Investment Fund (A$260,000+) from 2021–2023, integrating climate-risk analysis into portfolio management and competition preparation. She co-founded Australia’s first Carbon Literacy course and co-authored two open-access UQ Press textbooks. Her teaching evaluations are consistently outstanding. She supervises Honours, Masters, and PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and industry-linked projects.

Saphira also serves as the elected UQ academic representative to UniSuper (188/211 votes) and coached the UQ team that placed second in the Global Business Challenge (2019, $15,000). She is a frequent speaker at conferences such as the UN PRI Annual Conference and the Princeton E-ffiliates Retreat, and is a regular reviewer for journals including Nature Climate Change, Nature Sustainability, and Nature Communications.