DOWNES

Stephanie has been working in the climate and sustainability space for over 20 years, and is currently based in Tasmania, Australia. She is the Executive Director for Asia-Pacific (APAC) for the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) – a global not-for-profit organisation that accelerates and leads initiatives to increase circular living from home to Board level across food, textiles, plastics, recycling and reuse, and other key circular economy areas. Stephanie was formerly a national Director in Deloitte Australia’s Climate & Sustainability team, providing a climate change lens to strategy, risk management, governance, and resilience planning & delivery, and is an expert in voluntary and mandatory climate and sustainability disclosure standards (e.g., ISSB, AASB, NZ CS1, TNFD). Her climate science-based advisory services and tools supported ASX10 and other major businesses globally across over 75 countries and Australian government departments for sectors including agriculture, consumer goods, retail, finance, mining, oil & gas, IT, and transport. Stephanie previously led climate research in the New South Wales, delivering the $18m climate resilience program, supporting climate products, policy, strategies, and critical infrastructure for local councils to state government agencies. Stephanie has a 15 year academic background in global climate trends, ocean circulation, and climate modelling in research institutions in Australia and the United States, has published 25 climate science journal articles on this topic, and has been an expert academic and government reviewer for the past five IPCC reports.