Saphira Rekker

Saphira is a Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Sustainable Finance at The University of Queensland and has a PhD in Climate Finance.

Saphira's research focuses on tools to measure and verify the efficacy of decarbonisation commitments by corporations. As part of the Princeton-led Rapid Switch initiative, she leads the "Are you Paris Compliant" program, which evaluates the alignment of companies and investment portfolios with the Paris Agreement. Saphira is a member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the Science Based Targets initiative, and has been a key contributor to EU climate benchmarking regulation. She has ongoing collaborations with numerous industry partners including Fidelity, Ernst & Young and Norges Bank Investment Management.

Saphira's research is cross-disciplinary and she has published in high impact journals, Nature Climate Change and Nature Communications, as well as several other highly ranked academic journals. She has received several awards and funding, most recently over $400k from the Australian Research Council to support her research in 2024-2027. Earlier on in her career she was a recipient of the prestigious International Post-graduate Research Scholarships for her PhD in 2014 and won the UQ Business School 2017 Teaching Award (Tutor). In 2018, Saphira's essay on integration of responsible investment in financial education won the UN Principles for Responsible Investment's 2018 essay competition. She is a regular panellist at conferences and forums such as the European Commission Conference on Sustainable Finance and the Princeton E-ffiliates Retreat, and her teaching, which includes Australia's first Carbon Literacy course, has been recognised with multiple awards.