Bapon (SHM) Fakhruddin, PhD

Water and Climate Leader| Strategic Investment Partnerships and Co-Investments| Professor| EW4ALL| Board Member| Chair- CODATA TG| Award Winner (SDG 2021, EWS 2025)

Rethinking Corporate Climate Action: Beyond Emission-Reduction Targets

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Bapon Fakhruddin

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The fundamental assumption that emission-reduction targets should be the central and often sole metric for setting or benchmarking individual corporations’ climate action ambition is flawed. This approach fails to account for the dynamic nature of markets and the crucial role of future innovators in driving the necessary transformations.

While corporate emissions targets can help curb emissions, relying solely on them to guide and track progress in aligning the economy with the Paris Agreement goals is insufficient and potentially detrimental. We must recognize the distinct roles of companies as agents of innovation and market regulators and supervisors as definers and enforcers of market-wide objectives for sustainability. We need a blended combination of dynamic regulations, incentives for innovation, and a holistic assessment of companies’ climate ambitions so that we can truly accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy and secure a sustainable future for all.

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About the author

Dr Fakhruddin is an expert climate change risk assessor with 18 years’ global experience in working on disaster risk and climate resilience projects. This experience is a major advantage in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy development. His key areas of expertise are climate and multi-hazard risk assessment, disaster preparedness, early warning and emergency response and coastal community resilience. He has designed climate change and disaster response projects more than 25 countries in Asia and the Pacific. During his career, Dr Fakhruddin helped to design major international multi-hazard early warning systems for floods, cyclone and tsunami to save life and property damage. His most high profile work has been developing multi-hazard warning systems including a tsunami warning system for Indian Ocean countries following the deadliest one in history – the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Dr Fakhruddin is currently work as a mentor and supervisor for postgraduate study in disaster risk management in University of Auckland (UoA). He is a Science Committee Member of IRDR of ICSU/UNISDR, Co-Chair for the Disaster Loss DATA and Risk Interpretation and Applications (RIA) Working Group of IRDR of ICSU/UNISDR. He is also Co-Chair CODATA task group Linked Open Data for Global Disaster Risk Research (LODGD) and PSG member of the Coastal Inundation Forecasting Demonstration Project (CIFDP) and Open Panel of Commission for Hydrology Experts (OPACHE) of WMO. Recently Dr Fakhruddin appointed by the Government of New Zealand to develop national climate change risk assessment framework