Becoming Climate Ready July 2025

In this program you will learn the context, tools, and concepts you need to develop strategies to help your council manage and respond to climate risks and opportunities. Participants will learn how to identify their organisation's current positioning and the necessary factors needed to execute effective and efficient climate risk management.

Participants will develop knowledge and skills to be able to:

• Understand the role of executive leadership, governance arrangements and responsibilities that are needed to support climate risk management.
• Identify how to communicate and engage others in climate risk management.
• Identify physical and transition climate risks and how they relate to different service areas in local government.
• Integrate climate risk into existing corporate risk management practices.
• Examine climate risk capacity and capability gaps and opportunities across the organisation.

Understand the opportunities for monitoring and reporting on climate risk management, and the increasing requirements climate financial risk disclosure.

The course will consists of 8 modules in total. Please find below the topics that will be covered. 

• Module 1: Climate change and the science for decision making 
• Module 2: Physical and transition risk types 
• Module 3: Communicate for engagement in climate risk management 
• Module 4: Enabling responsive leadership and more effective climate governance 
• Module 5: Integrate climate risk into corporate risk management 
• Module 6: Identify and prioritise climate risk 
• Module 7: Building capacity and capability and strategic action planning 
• Module 8: Monitoring, evaluating, and reporting progress on climate risk management 

Executives, senior leaders, and managers of local councils across all service areas. This program is tailored for all service areas, including those working in service delivery, corporate strategy and finance, risk and disaster management, community and economic development, and sustainability and climate change.

Participants will earn a digital badge upon completion of the course which can be shared across varous online platforms so you can showcase your demonstrated skills and achievements.

The delivery will be interactive, self-paced and all online over the course of 10 weeks. There will be three (3) facilitated online workshops and a commitment of approximately 2 hours each week is required.

The dates for the workshop will be confirmed once registrations open.

The course will be brought to you by the Climate Ready Initiative (CRI) a key pillar of the Griffith Climate Action Beacon. CRI is a partnership-based social impact initiative that works with society to help shape a prosperous and just future for all. We seek to enable climate action by unlocking the economic and social development pathways that value net-zero emissions and climate resilience.

The course draws on practical experience and expertise from some of our CRI Associates and academics across Griffith University.

Professor Brendan Mackey

Professor Brendan Mackey is Director of the Griffith Climate Action Beacon, Griffith University. The Beacon seeks to develop the knowledge, leadership, capacity, and responses to enable effective and just climate action throughout society and focuses specifically on interdisciplinary research and cross-sectoral practice collaborations as catalysts for climate action. He is also Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Chapter 11 – Australasia. He has a PhD in Ecology from The Australian National University and has authored over 250 publications in the fields of environmental science and policy.

Cheryl Briars

Cheryl is a Project Manager at the Climate Ready Initiative and works closely with government and stakeholders across a broad range of disciplines to facilitate and implement projects to support capacity and capability building for climate risk management. Cheryl understands the complexity of climate change and environmental issues, and the innovative approaches required to scope solutions, manage risks, and harness opportunities. Cheryl led the development of this micro-credential course.

Tracey Stinson

Tracey Stinson is an accomplished executive, board director and facilitator. She has held executive positions within local government and run her own successful management consulting business. She is currently the QLD Director, Policy and Impact with the Clean Energy Council, helping to drive the renewable energy transition in QLD. Tracey has a proven ability to respectfully challenge the status quo and assist organisations and teams to realign their strategic direction to plan for and manage risks and opportunities, particularly those associated with climate change. She has an MBA, a Graduate Certificate in Dispute Resolution, a Bachelor of Economics and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Donovan Burton

Donovan is the Director of Informed. City and is a highly experienced climate change practitioner with a diverse portfolio of experience. Over the past 18 years he has worked on over 350 climate change projects.  Donovan has recently worked closely with clients in financial service sector developing climate integrated scenarios, quantifying transition and physical risk, mainstreaming climate change into core governance, as well as helping organisations with their climate-related financial disclosure. Donovan has carried out detailed climate change governance assessments with over 100 Australian local governments.