Technical Advisory Panel

Professor Richard Eckard  

Richard is Professor and Director of the Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre at the University of Melbourne and Research Program 3 Lead at the  Zero Net Emissions Agriculture CRC. His research focuses on carbon farming and accounting towards carbon neutral agriculture, managing extreme climate events and options for agriculture to respond to a changing climate. Richard developed the first greenhouse gas accounting tools for agriculture and his research and expertise provided the science basis for the development of six carbon offset methods in Australia.

 

He is a science advisor to the Victorian, Australian, New Zealand, UK and EU governments, the International Livestock Research Institute and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on climate change adaptation, mitigation and policy development in agriculture.  In 2021, Richard was named on the Reuters list of the world’s 1,000 most influential climate scientists and appointed as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.    

 

Dr Annette Cowie  

Annette is Senior Principal Research Scientist, NSW DPI (Department of Primary Industries) and Adjunct Professor, University of New England.  Annette has a background in soil science and plant nutrition, with a particular interest in sustainable resource management.

 

With over 30 years’ experience in research in agriculture and forestry in NSW, her research focuses on the science-policy interface, supporting holistic responses to climate change, and sustainable land management. Her expertise includes sustainability assessment, greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting for the land sector, soil carbon management, bioenergy, biochar and life cycle assessment.  Annette has applied her expertise in development of climate policy for the land sector, including GHG accounting for inventory and emissions trading and development of international standards. She was a lead author in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report and Special Report on Climate Change and Land.   

 

Dr Dan Zwartz  

Dan is responsible for the agriculture sector, and soil carbon on agricultural land, in the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, produced by the Emissions Reduction Division, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. He is an earth scientist with experience translating climate science for governments and policy makers. 

 

Until 2019, he was Principal Scientist, climate change, for the New Zealand Ministry for Environment, where he provided advice on setting the new 2050 emissions target in 2019, led government engagement with the IPCC, and oversaw updated adaptation guidance for local government. 

 

Professor Peter Grace  

Peter is Professor of Global Change at Queensland University of Technology with over 35 years of international experience in sustainable agriculture. His research has focused on the interactions of the soil carbon, nitrogen and water cycles and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from crop and pasture systems through profitable and productive agronomic management.  

 

He coordinated the National Australian Nitrous Oxide Research Program which brought together 23 federal, state and tertiary institutions in developing innovative solutions to emissions reduction. He developed the SOCRATES soil carbon model, an online accounting tool for predicting changes in soil organic carbon and greenhouse gas emissions in response to management.