Climate Innovation Forum interview with Nadia Kaddouri, South Pole CEO

[Climate action as a financial imperative] Climate action is now a business and financial issue, not just a sustainability goal. How are you seeing companies embed decarbonisation into core business decisions and investment strategies?

When I look at what leading companies are doing today, they are moving past distant 2050 pledges to focus on immediate, budget-aligned action. Today’s executives are hired to fix the operational and financial realities of 2026, while solving for long term strategic positioning.

In practice, forward-thinking businesses are embedding climate strategy into core decisions first by integrating metrics into their CapEx planning. Leaders move only when the next step is commercially sensible, internally defensible, and tied to a visible return they can explain to their CFO, board and investors. This includes operational efficiency upgrades that protect margins and pay for themselves within two years.

Second, companies are restructuring procurement to verify supplier emissions. By actively tracking value chain data, businesses mitigate exposure to climate-driven commodity disruptions and de-risk their broader sourcing landscapes.

Ultimately, true value creation means recognizing that robust economic performance and environmental impact run on the exact same engine.

 

[The ambition-execution gap] Many organisations have set ambitious climate targets but struggle to turn them into action. What's the biggest barrier to implementation, and how can companies overcome it?

 The challenge for corporate leaders is no longer a lack of climate ambition - it is execution. Too many executives tell me they find themselves stalled by fragmentation – balancing shifting regulations, complex supply chains and constrained budgets without a clear roadmap.

To break this paralysis, we must integrate a core truth into our financial planning: sustainability requires profitability, but sustainability can also unlock new sources of value creation.

We must stop treating sustainability as a cost centre and view it as a lever for operational excellence and long-term value. In my experience, net zero never happens in a single leap; it is built through a series of practical, commercially sensible choices.

The businesses winning this next phase are consolidating strategy, project finance and verification under one roof. By anchoring climate targets into transparent, data-backed operations, they de-risk supply chains, protect margins and unlock a lower cost of capital.

In 2026, my mandate for leadership is simple: stop pledging, start doing.

 

[Increased scrutiny] As expectations from investors, regulators and stakeholders continue to evolve, what does a credible climate transition plan look like today, and how is South Pole helping organisations build confidence in their approach?

Today, a credible climate transition plan replaces  distant 2050 pledges with immediate, fundable actions. Looking at the newly released SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0, true leadership means embedding verified emissions reporting and actionable five-year milestones directly into core business decisions.

While the SBTi standard sets the destination, the decision to deploy every high-integrity tool today rests with the business.

At South Pole, we seek to make climate accessible, investable and profitable by bringing strategy, project finance and environmental markets under one roof. We help corporate leaders translate abstract targets into practical execution – calculating traceable footprints, structuring realistic goals and delivering high-quality market instruments - and de-risk strategies so progress stands up to scrutiny.

The Complexity of Supply Chain Decarbonisation: Supply chain emissions remain one of the biggest opportunities for climate action. What practical solutions are proving most effective in helping organisations engage suppliers and accelerate progress?

The supply chain conversation has fundamentally changed. Discussions at London Climate Action Week confirmed that treating supplier engagement as a compliance exercise destroys value.

Transforming targets into action requires a practical roadmap: baseline with audit-ready data, reframe value chain efficiency as a lever for cost control, and co-design localized plans with suppliers rather than issuing abstract mandates.

In practice, this means overcoming the mismatch between short-term financial cycles and long-term sustainability horizons. As demonstrated at our London Climate Action Week Decarbonisation Toolbox workshop on agricultural insetting, turning targets into resilient economic infrastructure requires solving immediate capital constraints for producers.

South Pole guides companies through this pathway, connecting high-level strategy to field-level execution while keeping progress measurable and credible.

 

Channelling Investment into High-Integrity Solutions & Pragmatic Decision-Making: Companies have limited resources and many competing priorities. Where should business leaders invest first to deliver measurable climate impact while creating long-term commercial value?

Stepping in at a time of unprecedented disruption, I am acutely aware of the competing priorities we face in the C-suite. Between managing fragile supply chains, accelerated climate risks and constrained capital, boards and investors demand results.

My answer is direct: look for fundable next steps that are commercially sensible, internally defensible and tied to a visible return. Long-term value creation begins by aligning your decarbonisation roadmap with your core business strategy and CapEx planning. This means executing operational efficiency upgrades that tighten supply chains while stripping out waste.

Beyond internal efficiency, corporate leaders must deploy every high-integrity tool at their disposal. Waiting for perfect certainty will not build durable business value, but driving capital into both decarbonisation and neutralisation will. High-quality carbon credits are one of the few practical instruments that can channel vital finance into value chains today.

By combining robust internal reductions with high-integrity market mechanisms, we transition from isolated initiatives into the standardized, investible economic infrastructure of the next decade.

About South Pole:

At South Pole, we seek to make climate accessible, investable and profitable by bringing strategy, project finance and environmental markets under one roof.
 As demonstrated at our London Climate Action Week Decarbonisation Toolbox workshop on agricultural insetting, turning targets into resilient economic infrastructure requires solving immediate capital constraints for producers.