Graham is an economist at Frontier Economics and has extensive experience working with clients across the private and public sectors to address complex economic challenges in sustainability. He has held senior roles in government, regulatory agencies, and public financing authorities, providing him with a broad perspective across markets, policy, and regulation.
Graham leads the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practice at Frontier Economics, supporting clients in developing practical, evidence-based solutions that withstand technical, financial, and regulatory scrutiny.
Carbon and biodiversity markets, policy and regulation
Graham collaborates with clients to design, implement, and improve the effectiveness of environmental markets, with a focus on carbon trading, carbon credit integrity, and biodiversity markets. His approach integrates ecology, legal frameworks, and economic theory to deliver evidence-based guidance for policy reform and investment.
Examples include:
- Designing a national biodiversity offset pricing framework to support the Australian Government’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) reforms, in addition to developing evidence-based offset reform and pricing models in Queensland and Western Australia.
- Advising the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust on regulatory and financial mechanisms to incentivise conservation and restoration, and separately assisting IPART in its annual review of the NSW biodiversity credit market.
- Delivering business cases and cost-benefit analysis for the NSW Government on issues including threatened ecological community mapping, digital biodiversity monitoring, and the application of satellite imagery in natural hazard planning and environmental protection.
- Forecasting Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) prices, advising on carbon project integrity standards, and assessing nature-based market premiums for project developers and investors.
Climate change and sustainability
Graham advises clients on climate change and sustainability challenges, providing sector-specific guidance on decarbonisation planning, climate-resilient infrastructure, industry transitions, and the economic and social impacts of sustainable investment. Examples include:
- Advising a major Australian port operator on the design and implementation of an internal carbon price to guide capital investment, achieve net zero commitments, and manage Scope 3 emissions.
- Quantifying the economic, social, and productivity benefits of rebuilding schools to higher flood-resilience standards for a state education department.
- Developing a cost–benefit analysis for A4NZ to support policy development for a domestic sustainable aviation fuel industry, including GDP and employment impacts.
- Conducting sector-wide analysis of forestry, including native forest logging impacts, transition packages, and regional economic transition modelling.
- Quantifying the socio-economic benefits of private land conservation for the NSW Government and advising the Queensland Government on investor motivations in private land conservation financing.
- Providing analytical support to evaluate corporate net zero strategies in the context of the evolving voluntary carbon market and increasing stakeholder scrutiny.
Economic regulation
Drawing on experience in electricity, gas, water, rail, and ports, Graham advises clients on economic regulation, incentive design, and infrastructure investment. His recent work has focused on integrating climate risk resilience into regulatory frameworks and supporting regulated organisations in developing robust proposals for approval. Examples include:
- Advising Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure, Aurizon Network, and Seqwater on climate risk exposures and regulatory responses for the Queensland Competition Authority.
- Assisting Ausgrid prepare a regulatory submission to the Australian Energy Regulator including a comprehensive resilience investment strategy addressing climate-related risks to 2050.
- Supporting New Zealand’s largest electricity distribution companies in regulatory reform during the Commerce Commission’s 2023 Input Methodologies Review, enabling investments to support decarbonisation goals.
- Analysing ex ante allowed returns versus ex post realised returns across electricity networks in Europe, Asia, and North America to inform investor incentives under net zero policy alignment.
We work as one team across the world
In Asia-Pacific, we do this from offices in Australia and Singapore. We work as a single team with expertise and people brought together as required by the problem we are solving for our clients. Reach out to any of our economists and consultants to find out how we can help you.
