Brendan Mackey
Griffith University

Professor Brendan Mackey

Adaptation champion, key researcher

Professor and director, Griffith Climate Action Beacon, Griffith University

See Professor Mackey’s full research profile here (Griffith University) and here (Google Scholar).

Research outputs linked to policy change and decision-making

• Queensland Climate Ready. Professor Mackey is a director of the Queensland Climate Ready (QCR) initiative, a 5-year partnership program between Griffith University and the Queensland Department of Environment and Science that aims to strengthen institutional climate-risk management within the Queensland Government. The QCR program supports the implementation of the government’s Managing climate risk: Actions for Queensland Government commitment, to ensure that Queensland is effectively managing climate-change risks through policy, investments, services and asset management.
• EcoCommons. Professor Mackey chairs the scientific advisory committee for EcoCommons which is funded by the Australian Research Data Commons. This is a cloud-based platform that aims to empower Australian practitioners and researchers to use trusted datasets, modelling tools and training resources for addressing ecological and environmental problems and accelerating evidence-based policy and decision-making.

Current academic employment and positions

• professor and director, Griffith Climate Action Beacon, Griffith Climate Change Response Program, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility
• coordinating lead author, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report, Working Group II: Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation, Chapter 11 Australasia
• chief investigator, Australian Research Council discovery: Managing environmental change through planning for transformative pathways (DP160103371).

Highest qualification

• 1992: PhD, The Australian National University.

Roles on government or regional organisation committees

• Professor Mackey currently serves on the Queensland timber inquiry expert advisory committee. He has previously served on the following international, federal and state government expert panels and committees: the statutory Cape York Peninsula Region scientific and cultural advisory committee, the scientific advisory panel to the Australian Government’s Climate Commission, the Tasmanian Government’s forest carbon study, and the ad-hoc technical expert group on biodiversity and climate change which advised the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Links with non-government groups or networks

• Professor Mackey is a board member of the Great Eastern Ranges (GER) initiative which aims to bring people together to restore and reconnect healthy habitats and works with its partners across the length of the ranges to stem the loss of native species, provide natural solutions to a changing climate, protect precious resources, and ensure a healthy, resilient landscape for wildlife and people. GER supports and enables voluntary partnerships involving more than 250 local, regional and national organisations representing a broad spectrum of natural resource managers and conservation stakeholders.

My Projects

Current projectCompleted project

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  Solutions science for resilient landscapes

  Keywords: Co-design, Solutions science, User-driven

  
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  Cross-cutting initiative research

  Keywords: Threatened species, Migratory species, Protected areas

  
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  Climate-resilient landscapes: an adaptation case study in NSW’s Northern Rivers region

  Keywords: cultural values, climate change, adaptation planning, priority species and ecosystemsNorthern rivers regioncommunity centred