Some Projects

Marie Sklodowksa Curie Action (Individual Fellowship) on maximising human wellbeing and minimising emissions (MAXWELL). The project engages with one of the most important questions in the field of climate action, as per the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (2014), how to decouple human wellbeing from emissions.

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/657865

The IRIS project at the Finland Futures Research Centre provides significant novel research on the development of the Cuban energy system and its potential future development paths, in both a local and global socio-economic, political, technological and environmental context. The project builds on previous research work of  the partner institutions and other research.

https://www.tuni.fi/fi/tutkimus/cuban-energy-transformation-integration-renewable-intermittent-sources-power-system-iris

Ireland is deeply locked-in to an emissions intensive and unsustainable transport system. This chapter in the EPA State of the Environment Report (SOER) 2020, co-authored with colleagues at the EPA, discusses the drivers of this problem, it's impacts, and charts the course to escape 'lock-in' to this costly and damaging path. To acheive this, it platforms a new approach for Ireland, articulating best practices globally, for a 'sustainable mobility transformation'. This long-term approach to avoid, shift and improve transport, is not only necessary for climate action, but offers many benefits beyond relying on the decarbonisation of technology alone.

https://www.epa.ie/media/EPA-Ireland's-Environment-2020-Chapter11.pdf

Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is a key tool used in Ireland to determine whether investments contribute to welfare and provide value for money.

This report comprehensively assesses the approach in Ireland, in the context of major changes internationally in how CBA is done. The report notes a number of serious deficiencies in the practice of CBA in Ireland, with particular implications for the environment and climate action. The report provides a set of recommendations for a necessary update of practices in Ireland, and has led to two peer-reviewed publications.

The research was supported by grant from the 'Environment Fund' of Ireland's Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, as administered by the National Economic and Social Development Office. 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328383318_Appraisal_in_transition_21st_century_challenges_and_updating_Cost-Benefit_Analysis_in_Ireland

This project at the Dublin Institute of Technology School of Spatial Planning:

-considered a multidimensional set of driving forces of energy-related carbon emissions in Ireland

-implemented novel approaches to decomposition analysis to quantify driving forces

-developed a new scenario-based hybrid qualitative-quantitative approach to explore plausible change in short and medium term emissions

-developed a new 'DISCGEN' model to create scenarios for Ireland

Outputs include a successful doctorate and four peer-reviewed publications, one of which is noted as a best practice approach in IPCC AR5.

https://arrow.tudublin.ie/builtdoc/6/