The Forum for Reducing Australia's Methane Emissions

Professor Peter Rayner's research centres on estimating surface sources and sinks of CO2 using satellite and in-situ data combined with models to analyse CO2 release and uptake patterns, particularly in the tropics and Southern Hemisphere. He was awarded the Priestley Medal of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society in 2002, recognising his contributions to the field.

Professor Rayner has held research positions at leading institutions including the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Princeton University, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Monash University and the Laboratory for the Science of Climate and the Environment in France. He currently leads a team of senior academics and developers on the development of the methane emissions model for Open Methane.

Lesley Hughes is Professor Emerita in Biology at Macquarie University. Her principal research interests have been the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems and the implications for conservation. She is a former Lead Author for the IPCC's 4th and 5th Assessment Report, a former federal Climate Commissioner, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, a Councillor with the Biodiversity Council of Australia, a Director of the Environmental Defenders Office, a Councillor and Director of the Climate Council of Australia, and a member of the Climate Change Authority. In 2024 she coauthored a report for the Climate Council titled “Dangerously Overlooked: Why We Need to Talk About Methane”.

Pep is a Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO Environment, Chief Lead Investigator in the Climate Systems Hub of the National Environmental Science Program, and the Executive Director of the Global Carbon Project, a global consortium of scientists under the umbrella of Future Earth and a scientific partner of the World Climate Research Programme.

Pep focuses on collaborative and highly integrative research to develop national, continental, and global budgets and trend analyses of the main greenhouse gases. He also studies the size and vulnerability of Earth's carbon sinks and stocks, carbon-climate feedbacks, and pathways to net-zero emissions, including land-based carbon sequestration and negative emissions. He draws on a robust understanding of regional and global biogeochemical cycles to inform the formulation of sub-national, national, and international policies and actions to mitigate climate change.

Pep has contributed to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the last 20 years and has participated in multiple assessments by the World Meteorological Organization. Pep is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and the American Geophysical Union. He has been a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in Environment & Ecology and/or Geosciences every year since 2017.

Prof Julia Marshall works at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and holds a joint professorship at the Leipzig Institute of Meteorology at Leipzig University. Her research group – distributed between the university and DLR – uses inverse modelling to determine surface fluxes of greenhouse gases, with a particular focus on the use of remote sensing measurements to understand both the natural carbon cycle and anthropogenic emissions.

Julia's work with remote sensing measurements has led to her involvement in mission advisory groups for a range of satellite missions, including the upcoming European CO2M constellation, the MethaneSAT mission of the Environmental Defense Fund, and the French-German methane lidar mission MERLIN. She is the principal investigator for the CO2Image satellite mission, a joint project between the Brazilian and German space agencies (INPE and DLR) which is scheduled to launch in 2030. CO2Image will focus on concentrated emission sources of carbon dioxide and methane, imaging up to 75 target areas per day at a spatial resolution of 50 m to resolve individual emission sources, acting like a zoom lens for global survey missions like CO2M and TROPOMI.

Zoë Loh is a research scientist at CSIRO specialising in high-quality in situ observations of greenhouse gases and biogeochemically related trace gases. As a lead scientist for the Kennaook/Cape Grim Greenhouse Gas and Ozone Depleting Substances program, Zoë is responsible for maintaining and interpreting observations of these radiatively important trace gases at a critical global site for understanding atmospheric composition change and its impact on the Earth system.

In collaboration with colleagues specialising in inverse modelling techniques, Zoë is interested in transforming ground-based in situ data sets into regional, sectoral or facility scale assessments of methane sources in Australia to assist with evidence-based mitigation policy development.

Professor Bryce Kelly is an Earth and environmental scientist at UNSW Sydney. He has an international reputation for measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to verify inventories under Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Australian Government methodologies, and for identifying mitigation opportunities. He is a member of the Australian Government Expert Panel on Atmospheric Measurement of Fugitive Methane Emissions and serves on the advisory committee for the NSW GHG Monitoring and Verification Program.

His research integrates greenhouse gas emissions, groundwater management, and spatial modelling. His work focuses on measuring and modelling emissions from oil and gas, coal mining, agriculture, and waste. He leads top-down versus bottom-up verification studies, incorporating isotopic characterisation of methane sources to improve source attribution and inventory modelling. He also specialises in groundwater management studies, including work that has assessed the impacts of fossil fuel development on groundwater resources in the Namoi and Condamine catchments. In addition, he specialises in 3D geological modelling and geostatistics, and is currently reviewing coal core-based methods for estimating mine emissions. He uses this research to support teaching, encourage careers in carbon management, and inform government submissions aimed at improving GHG policy and legislation.

Andy Wilkins works in CSIRO's Sustainable Mining Technologies Program. His recent research has focused on quantifying the costs and uncertainty of abating Australia's fugitive methane emissions. He has led teams that produced world-first marginal abatement cost estimates across coal mining, landfills, and livestock, helping to underpin evidence-based methane policy and industry investment decisions.

He is also the Digital Lead for CSIRO's Mineral Resources research unit, where he provides strategic oversight of data, software, AI, and digital products.

Joanna Kay is an international leader with experience across the public and private sectors in Australia, China, and India, with broader engagement across Europe and Asia. Her work focuses on energy innovation and international trade, unlocking economic opportunities while delivering practical outcomes.

She has in-depth experience brokering complex negotiations and aligning stakeholders around workable, minimum agreed positions. Joanna designs and facilitates high-level engagements with governments, industry leaders, and international organisations, building consensus in politically and commercially sensitive environments.

Her work shapes policy, partnerships, and market frameworks that position Australia as a trusted partner in strategic industries. She has contributed to regulatory settings, certification systems, and market standards, linking policy, investment, and industry strategy to support resilient, globally connected markets.

Joanna has contributed to national strategies, advised on major projects, and supported cross-border investment initiatives. Recognised in The Australian's Top 100 Energy Players (The Green List), she also mentors emerging leaders through the Paris Collaborative Global Fellowship.

Phil Hayes is a geoscientist with over 30 years' experience across the water, energy and mining sectors globally, focused in recent years on the detection and quantification of fugitive methane. He is Associate Professor at the University of Queensland Gas & Energy Transition Research Centre, where he leads the Environment and Decarbonisation themes, and is Co-Founder and Managing Director of CH4racterise, a specialist company providing methane quantification surveys and equipment supply.

His technical work spans environmental impact assessment, subsurface fluid dynamics, and groundwater and reservoir modelling, bridging subsurface expertise with emissions measurement at field scale. Recent research includes autonomous quantum gas LiDAR systems for methane quantification, fugitive emissions characterisation across energy and wastewater operations, and isotopic studies of subsurface gases and CCS work in the Surat and Bowen Basins.

Phil has been a member of the Australian Government's Independent Expert Scientific Committee (IESC) since June 2021, advising on the environmental impacts of large coal and unconventional gas development proposals. He holds a PhD in Engineering and a BSc in Physics, and is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Di Mayberry is a systems scientist working across global, regional and farm-scale analyses to future-proof livestock production systems against a range of challenges threatening their long-term viability. Her expertise contributes to science focused on overcoming the impacts of a changing and variable climate, diminishing resources, changing consumer demands, and pressure from consumers and government to decrease the impact of animal agriculture on the environment. Di's research portfolio addresses these issues in both Australia and internationally, with projects across the Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Di is a Past President of the Australian Association of Animal Sciences (AAAS), a member of the AAS National Committee for Agriculture and Food, and has recently joined the FAO Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) partnership Technical Advisory Group on Incorporating greenhouse gas mitigation actions in livestock systems into national inventories.

Ruth is a social scientist and leads the Rural Innovation Research Group at the University of Melbourne. Ruth conducts engaged research with farmers, policy makers and agricultural extension and innovation practitioners to contribute to new policies and practices in agriculture and in rural communities. Her research focuses on rural resilience, workforce change, agricultural innovation systems and extension policy and design.

Recent research projects have examined trusted advice in emissions management on farm; young people and agri-food jobs and careers and living laboratories for enhancing drought resilience. Her research has influenced policy and practices in extension and change across diverse industries including dairy, cotton, beef and sheep, horticulture. In University education, Ruth coordinates subjects in the specialization in agricultural extension and innovation as part of the Master of Agriculture program. Ruth is coeditor-in chief of the Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, an international journal for extension research.

Nick is an applied scientist specialising in water-quality risk assessment and mitigation, with research interests that include harmful and nuisance algae, emerging water pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions from water industry assets, and wastewater-based epidemiology. Nick has worked at Melbourne Water since 2008 where he is currently acting in the role of Wastewater and Marine Discharge Research Manager.

Dr Cathy Trudinger is a Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Environment, and Team Leader of the Modelling – Greenhouse and Ozone Depleting Substances Team. Her research applies mathematical modelling and inverse methods to quantify emissions of greenhouse gases from facility to national scales using precise atmospheric observations.

Cathy is currently working with collaborators to quantify sectoral urban methane emissions in Melbourne, methane emissions from two large wastewater treatment plants in Melbourne, and Australian emissions of synthetic greenhouse gases (including refrigerants) and ozone depleting substances at the national scale. These 'top-down' estimates provide valuable information for national and facility emissions reporting, and inform mitigation options.

Cathy contributed to good-practice guidelines for both urban and national-scale greenhouse gas observation and monitoring, developed under the World Meteorological Organization's Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System (IG3IS).

Kay Baxter is a Climate Change Policy Manager at the NSW Environment Protection Authority.

For two years Kay and team have been working on establishing mitigation regulatory requirements for the NSW EPA's larger greenhouse gas emitting licensees. Over time, the NSW EPA will treat greenhouse gases like any other pollutant it regulates. Regulating this 'new' environmental domain is a step change for the EPA and its regulated community of 2,000 environment protection licence holders. The authority prioritised reducing methane in the first stages of its regulatory design. Mitigation requirements for coal mine methane were released in March 2026, following extensive consultation. Kay will outline why the NSW EPA has a role in regulating greenhouse gases and the journey to develop the coal mine methane mitigation requirements.

Before joining the NSW EPA, Kay led environmental policy teams in New Zealand for 20 years, working across climate change, freshwater and land policy for the Ministry for Primary Industries, Ministry for the Environment and Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

Alannah Pentony has served as Branch Head of the National Inventory Systems and International Reporting Branch at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water since June 2024. In this role, she leads the team responsible for compiling Australia's greenhouse gas emissions inventory and for the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme policy settings. Alannah's branch is also responsible for developing emissions projections through to 2040 and leading Australia's engagement with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Alannah has nearly 20 years of experience across climate change and environment policy in the Commonwealth Government. She has also held Senior Executive Service (SES) roles overseeing the Emissions Reduction Fund. Alannah currently represents Australia on the Board of the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) and is a member of the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee, (representing the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water).

Tiana is the Group Manager – Policy for LMS Energy, bringing 25 years of experience in environmental law-making.

Tiana is responsible for engaging with waste, circular economy and carbon-related policies and laws across Australia and New Zealand. She has been involved in the review of the ACCU Scheme's landfill method, landfill treatment under the Safeguard Mechanism and policies for anaerobic digestion and renewable gas.

Previously, Tiana led a series of progressive and responsible strategic waste policy and law reforms to enhance resource recovery, improve reporting and tackle illegal dumping for the EPA SA. Tiana also lectured at the University of South Australia and has previously worked on inter-jurisdictional policy, environmental assessment coordination and in planning law.

Tiana is the current SA Branch President of the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR) and a former Chair of Bioenergy Australia's Renewable Gas Alliance. She is an active member of the carbon committees of several industry associations.

Stephen Roxburgh is a recognised leader in terrestrial plant ecology and greenhouse gas accounting, with over 20 years' experience in the field measurement and computer modelling of forest growth and carbon cycling. Stephen's research interests are broad, encompassing pure and applied ecology, ecological statistics, and ecological modelling. He joined CSIRO in 2008 and has held a number of science leadership roles, most recently (2020–2025) as Research Group leader of the organisation's Natural Capital group.

Stephen works closely with the Australian government to develop robust methods for greenhouse gas accounting and reporting, including quantifying the impacts of wildfires on Australian ecosystems, improving our understanding of carbon sequestration in regrowing forests, and understanding the stocks and flows of carbon in harvested native forests. His research has recently supported the development of two new savanna fire management methodologies under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme, released in April 2026. Stephen has published over 150 scientific papers and reports, including co-author of the Global Forests Observation Initiative (GFOI) Methods and Guidance document on Integration of remote-sensing and ground-based observations for estimation of emissions and removals of greenhouse gases in forests for REDD+.

Dr Luke Jeffrey is an early-career wetland biogeochemist specialising in methane dynamics across terrestrial–aquatic interfaces. An Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow, his research examines how tree-dwelling microbial communities regulate trace gas fluxes in wetland and floodplain ecosystems. His influential work has advanced our understanding of methane production and transport within tree stems, demonstrating that living trees act as conduits linking soil biogeochemistry with the atmosphere, and that stem emissions can represent a significant, previously underappreciated component of wetland ecosystem methane budgets.

Stephen Roxburgh is a recognised leader in terrestrial plant ecology and greenhouse gas accounting, with over 20 years' experience in the field measurement and computer modelling of forest growth and carbon cycling. Stephen's research interests are broad, encompassing pure and applied ecology, ecological statistics, and ecological modelling. He joined CSIRO in 2008 and has held a number of science leadership roles, most recently (2020–2025) as Research Group leader of the organisation's Natural Capital group.

Stephen works closely with the Australian government to develop robust methods for greenhouse gas accounting and reporting, including quantifying the impacts of wildfires on Australian ecosystems, improving our understanding of carbon sequestration in regrowing forests, and understanding the stocks and flows of carbon in harvested native forests. His research has recently supported the development of two new savanna fire management methodologies under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme, released in April 2026. Stephen has published over 150 scientific papers and reports, including co-author of the Global Forests Observation Initiative (GFOI) Methods and Guidance document on Integration of remote-sensing and ground-based observations for estimation of emissions and removals of greenhouse gases in forests for REDD+.