Energy Justice: addressing transport & residential energy deprivation (NexSys)
Dates: 2022 – 25
Funding Organisation/Programme: All Ireland Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Strategic Partnership Programme
Principal Investigator: Assoc. Prof. Nessa Winston, Assoc. Prof. (Social Policy) with Dr. Páraic Carroll, Asst. Prof. in the UCD School of Civil Engineering (Co-Investigator)
Background The decarbonisation of the Energy System will play a vital role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and help mitigate the impacts of Climate Change. The technical and societal challenges inherent in decarbonisation are set to be enduring challenges of the mid-21st century and ones that will require a whole of society approach, encompassing academia, industry, government, and citizens. This unique partnership programme is bringing together a multidisciplinary research team, industry, and policy makers to tackle fundamental research questions to be addressed as part of the transition to net Zero award. As part of this programme, Dr Nessa Winston will oversee a four-year PhD research project in addition to a two-year postdoctoral research project.
Aims and Objectives The scientific objectives are to reduce energy poverty by highlighting social groups who experience or are at risk of energy poverty; estimate the likely effects of decarbonisation strategies on these groups; identify possible redress mechanisms and contribute to residential and transport energy poverty strategies.
Work Programme Hosted by UCD Energy Institute, NexSys brings together academics from nine institutions across the Island of Ireland (UCD, TCD, DCU, ESRI, Maynooth University, UCC, NUI Galway, Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast) to work together to meet the unprecedented scale and complexity of the challenges associated with the energy transition. In terms of UCD there are a total of twelve schools involved in NexSys. In addition to the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice is the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, School of Business, School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, School of Computer Science, School of Economics, School of Geography, School of Mathematics and Statistics, School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and the School of Politics and International Relations. Research programme The UCD School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice has recruited a PhD candidate and is in the process of recruiting a Postdoctoral researcher to work on this NexSys Work Package entitled ‘Energy Justice: addressing transport & residential energy deprivation’. A just transition requires poverty-proofing next generation energy systems to address residential & transport energy deprivation. Current measures of poverty in Ireland fail to capture both residential & transport energy deprivation so the extent of vulnerability in these sectors is unknown. The carbon intensity of household energy use has not been located within a multiple deprivation framework so the impact of strategies which increase fossil fuel costs are also unknown. Rising costs may detract from the ability to pay for other essential goods. They may also exacerbate social exclusion &/ inequalities.
Overall Focus of the Research Building on existing poverty, deprivation & energy research, the doctoral fellow will work on designing a new multidimensional poverty framework to include both residential & transport energy and assessing energy deprivation in Ireland along with its impacts on other forms of deprivation. It will adopt an energy justice framework to address social exclusion & inequalities. Aims and Objectives Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, the scientific objectives are: to reduce energy poverty by highlighting social groups who experience or are at risk of energy poverty; estimate the likely effects of decarbonisation strategies on these groups; identify possible redress mechanisms and contribute to residential and transport energy poverty strategies. Impact While the project is in its infancy, the expected impact of this project is a real world contribution to facilitating the transition towards a socially and environmentally sustainable future. This will include: reducing energy poverty in the residential sector and improving health and wellbeing of residents; reducing transport poverty and promoting social inclusion in urban, suburban and rural areas; reducing GHG emissions from the residential and transport sectors.
For more information please contact Dr Nessa Winston. Email: (opens in a new window)Nessa.Winston@ucd.ie