Join us for a conversation with Professor Brendan Mackey and Dr Heather Keith, two of Australia’s leading forest and climate scientists.

A group of AEGN members Lisa Miller, Roderick Darling, Julie Taylor Mills and Anna Cerneaz have been collaborating on opportunities for better outcomes for Australia’s forests – for climate, biodiversity, and communities. One interesting development is new research showing that changing forest policies could reduce Australia’s emissions by 6%, helping close around 30% of the gap to our 2035 Paris targets. This would represent one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to cut emissions at scale.

The potential emissions savings (25.5 Mt) is equivalent to eliminating all transport emissions in Australia for 3 months a year (24.4 Mt).

We’ll also be joined by Justin Field, coordinator of the NSW Forest Alliance and former NSW Upper House MP, who will provide insight into the current political context and share what NGOs and community groups are doing to shift forest policy and protect native forests across the country.

Hear directly from Brendan, Heather and Justin as they walk through the science, the politics, and the pathways to impact.

Speakers

Professor Brendan Mackey

Professor Brendan Mackey is a tenured Professor at Griffith University, Queensland and Director of the Griffith Climate Action Beacon. The Beacon develops the knowledge, leadership, capacity and responses to enable effective and just climate action in society through a scientific understanding of climate change and its impacts on human and natural systems. Brendan has authored and co-authored 300 publications in the fields of environmental science and policy,  and has served as a Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group II Impacts, Vulnerability & Adaptation, Chapter 11 – Australasia.

Dr Heather Keith

Dr Heather Keith’s research portfolio is highly interdisciplinary and collaborative, involving many colleagues from diverse disciplines across the physical and biological sciences, economics, primary production, policy, governance, and modelling. The overarching focus is on high quality science progressing our understanding of complex systems through collection of compelling evidence, using personal data collected using rigorous and often novel methods combined with synthesis of existing data, then communicating this in forms suitable for informing policy-makers and practitioners to better manage forests and other natural ecosystems and their contribution to climate change mitigation.

Justin Field

Justin Field is a small business owner and former Independent Member of the NSW Legislative Council. He is currently the Director of the Forest Alliance NSW, campaigning to end native forest logging in NSW. Justin has worked for 15 years in environmental and political campaigns with a focus on campaign strategy. He is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon and served as an Intelligence Officer in the Australian Army before his involvement in environmental campaigning.