Sustainable Futures/Climate Change, Sustainability and Society
PhD Researcher in Sustainable Futures (ESRC 1+3)
College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter
Start date: September 2021
Research topic: Accelerating the net zero transition: the case of whole house retrofit
Achieving net zero requires radical and transformative action in a short timeframe with no prior precedents for a systemic transformation at this scale and speed. I am interested in how transitions can be accelerated, while taking into account that fundamentally this is a social and not just a technological or economic transformation. My research will explore how acceleration of transitions is enabled or constrained by focusing on the challenges of retrofitting UK homes. Current climate change targets will not be met without the near-complete decarbonisation of the housing stock, while achieving it also offers numerous societal co-benefits.
Research supervisors: Dr Catherine Butler , Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh , Dr Iain Soutar
Email: b.w.cieszewska@exeter.ac.uk