Office Hours

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Research Interests

My research concerns social studies of energy and climate change. With funding from UK Research and Innovation, our research group is studying comparative European heat and energy efficiency governance, and local and regional energy systems. Further work is evaluating the Energy Efficient Scotland Pilots (funding from Scottish ClimateXChange). Our research is used in 2017 Scottish Government Energy Strategy  Consultations and 2018 UK Government Clean Growth: Transforming Heating

Recent invited presentations include District Heating in the UK: Policy Challenges and Solutions, All Energy and D'carbonise, Glasgow 2019;  Social Dimensions of a Smarter Energy System, Energy Systems Catapult, London 2019; Local Governance and Energy System Change IGov Local Energy, 2018; Low Carbon Heat in Scotland, Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (SPREEE), 2018; Climate Change: Can The Humans Survive? Edinburgh Firestarter Festival: Apocalypse Now... or Never? The reality of climate change, 2018; Making Sustainable Cities – Policies and Practices for Low Carbon Heat in the Different Capitalist Societies of Britain and Germany, University of Hamburg 2017.

I am co-director of the UK Energy Research Centre; member of the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland and adviser to the Industrial Strategy Challenge: Prospering from the Energy Revolution.

Recent Publications

Books

(2016) Hawkey, D., Webb, J., Lovell, H., McCrone, D., Tingey, M. and Winskel, M.  Sustainable Urban Energy Policy: Heat and the City Abingdon: Routledge

Articles and Reports

(2020) Tingey, M. and Webb, J. Governance institutions and prospects for local energy innovation: laggards and leaders among UK local authorities. Energy Policy https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111211

(2020) Wade, F. and Webb, J. Emerging linked ecologies for a national scale retrofitting programme: The role of local authorities and delivery partners. Energy Policy https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111179

(2019) Webb, J. New Lamps for Old: Financialised Governance of Cities and Clean Energy. Journal of Cultural Economy, https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2019.1613253

(2019) Webb, J. The challenge of effective energy efficiency policy in the UK, Chapter 11 in K. Jenkins and D. Hopkins Transitions in Energy Efficiency and Demand London: Routledge

(2017) Lovell, H., Pullinger, M. and Webb, J. How do meters mediate? Energy meters, boundary objects and household transitions in Australia and the United Kingdom, Energy Research & Social Science, 34, 252–259 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.07.001

(2017) Webb, J. and Hawkey, D. On (not) assembling a market for sustainable energy: heat network infrastructure and British cities, Journal of Cultural Economy, 10:1, 8-20 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2016.1226193

(2017) Bramley, G., Fitzpatrick, S., Liddell, C. and Webb. J. A New Definition of Fuel Poverty in Scotland - A review of recent evidence Scottish Government ISBN: 978-1-78851-242-8

(2017) Webb, J. Heat, UKERC Review of Energy Policy

(2016) Webb, J. Heat and Energy Efficiency: Making Effective Policy. UK Committee on Climate Change Advisory Group Report

(2016) Webb, J., Hawkey, D., McCrone, D. and Tingey, M. House, home and transforming energy in a cold climate, Families, Relationships and Societies, https://doi.org/10.1332/204674316X14758447787663

(2016) Webb, J., Hawkey, D. and Tingey M. Governing cities for sustainable energy: The UK case, Cities, doi.org/10.1016/ j.cities.2015.10.014

(2016) Webb, J. Enabling urban energy: Governance of innovation in two UK cities. Chapter 10 in O. Coutard and J. Rutherford (eds) Beyond the Networked City: Infrastructure Reconfigurations and Urban Change in the North and South, Abingdon: Routledge

(2016) Webb, J. Socio-technical innovation in heat networks: Challenges of financing new systems in UK Cities. Chapter 4 in M. Hodson and S. Marvin (eds) Retrofitting Cities, Abingdon: Routledge

PhD in Sociology