In a webinar hosted by LIRRF on November 23, Professor Terry Hughes shared findings from his most recent work which sets out the scale of bleaching damage on the GBR and its implications for various reef-recovery proposals. Terry is the former Director the ARC Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and is one of the country’s foremost coral reef scientists. Terry was joined by Kate Mackenzie who shared her observations of Australia’s history of policy responses within the context of UNESCO’s “in danger” listing of the GBR and our Government’s plan taken to COP26. Kate is a Centre for Policy Development (CPD) research fellow and a consultant advising organization on climate change.
Distinguished Professor Terry Hughes is the former Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (2005-2020). He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2001. From 2002 to 2017 he held two ARC Federation Fellowships and a Laureate Fellowship. Terry has been awarded numerous prizes and awards, including the Centenary Medal of Australia, the quadrennial Darwin Medal of the International Society for Coral Reef Studies, and an Einstein Professorship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has received two Honorary Doctorates, from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (2014), and Trinity College, Dublin (2019).
Kate Mackenzie is a Centre for Policy Development (CPD) research fellow and an independent consultant who advises organisations pursuing the Paris Agreement goals on climate change, particularly in relation to finance and economics, strategy, and communication. She is also a regular contributor for Bloomberg Green, where she writes the “Stranded Assets” column. She has a particular interest in financial regulation, and has worked with CDP on this topic, co-authoring with CPD programme director Sam Hurley the “Climate Horizons” guide to finance-climate scenarios, which was awarded “Best non-broker research” by the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia, and convening with financial regulators APRA and the Reserve Bank of Australia.
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