Chris Foulds

Climate change research and credibility: balancing tensions across professional, personal, and public domains

For research to positively impact society, it must be scientifically credible. The researcher plays a key role in establishing and maintaining credibility, particularly in the climate change field. This paper provides a structure for relating the credibility of researchers themselves to that of research outputs, analysing ‘researcher credibility’ with reference to three overlapping domains: personal, professional, and public. The researcher’s role in each domain is considered in a reflexive way, examining the research process and the researcher’s actions. Varied definitions of researcher credibility and possible means to achieve it in each domain are discussed, drawing on relevant cross-disciplinary literature. We argue that, in certain contexts, the actions of researchers can have a direct impact on the credibility of their research. There is scope for broadening researcher credibility to include more public-oriented behaviours. This, however, may be contentious and problematic: potential conflicts exist between public action and professional credibility, with the latter usually taking precedence. By contrast, though personal action/inaction rarely affects professional credibility, researchers’ personal behaviours may influence public perceptions of research credibility and the importance of addressing climate change.

Constructing policy success for UK energy feedback

ABSTRACT Energy-feedback tools are commonly used to promote energy saving. In the UK, energy-feedback provision (currently via an in-home display) is part of the government-mandated roll-out of smart meters to all homes by 2020. A core assumption underlying this widespread provision is that information, or evidence, can lead to positive changes in action. This is analogous to assumptions underlying the notion of ‘evidence-based policy’, and raises questions about how users, researchers and policy-makers go about using evidence when aiming for a ‘successful’ outcome. In addition, the ‘policy feedback’ research agenda has asked how policies alter the landscapes within which they operate by, for example, affecting relationships between actors. Via an in-depth review of Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) policy literature over 2010–16, the UK smart meter roll-out was analysed in terms of how its energy-feedback-focused measures may be deemed as ‘successful’. Findings include the fact that direct energy savings played a smaller role than might be expected, and translation from one success measure to another was repeatedly observed. A key conclusion is that acting on feedback requires an assessment of success, but such assessment is highly contextual, for consumers and policy-makers alike. Ways to increase reflexivity in this area are discussed.

Building Futures: Managing energy in the built environment

1. Energy use in the built environment 2. Reducing energy demand 3. Lifecycle energy and carbon in buildings 4. Energy performance gap 5. Retrofitting buildings 6. The Passivhaus energy efficiency standard 7. Ventilating the building stock 8. Building futures

Mobilising the Energy-Related Social Sciences and Humanities

The energy-related Social Sciences and Humanities (energy-SSH) are commonly overlooked as a central evidence base for energy policy; the traditional Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines instead dominate the setting of policy goals. We argue that energy-SSH are insightful for energy policymaking and thus need more attention. We also make clear that to maximise their impact the considerable differences within energy-SSH need to be embraced rather than glossed over. From this position, we strongly advocate closer working of energy-SSH with STEM, as well as between the energy-SSH disciplines themselves. In illustrating all these points, we discuss the current European Union (EU) energy policy and research funding contexts and also outline our own SHAPE ENERGY project that aims to further the energy-SSH integration agenda across European circles. We finish the chapter with a brief commentary of this book’s three core ‘Parts’, and their constituent chapters, which address different contributions and experiences of utilising energy-SSH.