Brendan Mackey is a professor at Griffith University, Queensland Australia and Director of its Climate Action Beacon. He has a PhD in ecology from The Australian National University. He was a Coordinating Lead Author in Working Group II of the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. Brendan has served two 4-year terms on the IUCN Council where he co-chaired the Programme and Policy Committee, the working group on biodiversity offset policy and the policy on primary forest including intact forest landscapes. He also chaired the first Council's first working group on climate change. Brendan has authored over 300 academic publications in the fields of: climate change mitigation including ecosystem-based mitigation, the problem with offsets and decarbonization in the aviation sector; adaptation to climate risks including ecosystem-based and community-based approaches; and biodiversity conservation including threatened species and ecosystems, conservation planning, natural heritage assessment, and connectivity conservation. He was a member of the core drafting committee for the Earth Charter which was endorsed by the IUCN and UNESCO as an ethical framework for sustainability.