Dr Mark Howden
Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences
Mark is a Chief Research Scientist with CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Canberra, Australia. He is also the Theme Leader of the ‘Adaptive primary industries, enterprises and communities’ theme in the CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship and is an Honorary Professor at Melbourne University, School of Land and Food. Mark’s work has focussed on the impacts of climate on Australian ecosystems and urban systems dealing with amongst other things: the dynamics of grazed and cropped ecosystems, development of innovative and sustainable farming systems, biodiversity, energy systems and water use.
He has also developed the national (NGGI) and international (IPCC/OECD) greenhouse gas inventories for the agricultural sector and assessed sustainable methods of reducing greenhouse emissions from agriculture. Mark has worked on climate change issues for over 22 years in partnership with farmers, farmer groups, catchment groups, industry bodies, agribusiness, urban utilities and various policy agencies. He has been a major contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Assessment reports, the IPCC Regional Impacts Report and the IPCC Special Report on ‘Land use, land use change and forestry’ that addressed issues of carbon sequestration and the Kyoto Protocol, sharing the 2007 Peace Prize with other IPCC participants and Al Gore.