UCL Energy and Development Group

UCL Energy and Development Group (UCLEDG) aims to foster collaboration between researchers, practitioners and local stakeholders for research impact. If you are interested in joining the group please contact the chairing team.

Research areas | Recent projects | South-North collaboration | The team

Research areas

Built Environment

The scale and complexity of modern cities drives a need for approaches and tools which can assist policy makers and urban planners with the challenges of both understanding the current context and exploring potential future developments. As the world continues to urbanise, it is important to successfully manage this process and to ensure that the benefits of urbanisation are shared, and the impacts minimised.

Energy Systems and Infrastructure

Image of solar panels in lush countryside

Low and middle-income countries require a step-increase in infrastructure to accelerate growth and development. Key sustainable development lies in the methods of energy development, regional integration by interconnection, systematic solutions and roadmaps to sustain strategic planning, economic and technological implementation. Our models cover the full pathway of energy supply, conversion and end-use, and can be tailored to specific policy and country needs.

Governance

A big challenge for global energy governance is to manage a complex ‘energy trilemma’ of energy security, climate change, and energy poverty. We aim to understand how energy systems are governed at local, national, regional and transnational levels, by whom and with what consequences. These are crucial to assess and enhance the effectiveness of existing policy, governance and institutional frameworks in the implementation of SDG7.

Natural Resources Nexus

Resource Nexus (water-energy-land-food-materials) research and its integrated dynamic models (IDA3 and IDA5) are powerful tools to analyse trade-offs between resources. They give detailed insights into potential problems under different climate scenarios and have the capability to assess the impact of potential intervention strategies across resources.

People, Everyday Life and Communities

People and Communities research looks at the complex ways people’s (the end users) decision-making, values, behaviours and aspirations affects energy access and use in developing countries. And it aims to understand the differentiated impacts of energy access and poverty on women and other marginalised groups.

Technology and Innovation

Innovation in clean energy technologies is needed to address the challenge of increasing energy access in the context of sustainable economic development. We support the transformation of the energy sector by providing evidence about policies, institutions, business models and other changes that can help with innovation in cleaner technologies and a move away from fossil energy-based systems.

Recent projects

The Data Driven Redesign for Urban Climate Adaptation in Brazilian Informal Settlements (DDRUCABI) project is funded by the Royal Society and it’s a 3-year programme (2024-2027) aiming to increase the capacity of favela residents in São Paulo to adapt their homes to cope with climate change.

'A natural capital reporting framework for the Brazilian Pantanal' was a six-month project, in partnership with the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil. It aimed to develop a natural capital indicator framework that will provide local decision-makers with a reporting system of environment, economic and social indicators for the Pantanal region in Brazil.

The Pantanal region of Brazil, located in the Southern part of the Amazon rainforest, is a megadiverse tropical wetland. It is also one of the most productive areas for Brazilian agribusiness, including soybean, maize, sugarcane and beef. As a result, this critical ecosystem is increasingly under threat with numerous competing industries driving land use-land change and large wildfire events (Julia Tomei and Alison Fairbrass).

Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) is an eight-year programme funded by UK Aid (FCDO). By integrating modern energy cooking services into the planning for electricity access, quality, reliability and sustainability, MECS hopes to leverage investment in renewable energies (both grid and off-grid) to address the clean cooking challenge. MECS is implementing a strategy focused on including the cooking needs of households into the investment and action on ‘access to affordable, reliable, sustainable modern energy for all’.

Energy Democracy and the Politics of Energy Transition in African Countries surveys current practices associated with decentralization and local governance of energy supplies, consider established good practice and look to build routes forward with wider stakeholder communities. It will consider also the evolution of social imaginaries linked to energy transition in African countries, from national governments down to local communities.

Grounded Energy Modelling for equitable urban planning development in the global South (GEMDev) is funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Global Challenges Research Fund. GEMDev is using participatory research methods to cocreate data sets with off-grid communities and inform actionable strategies for future redevelopment to ensure dignified housing and habitat for the urban poor. The research process is designed to increase communities’ capacity and skills, to amplify their voice in the planning processes that have profound impacts on their lives and to ensure that they are represented in the Urban Building Energy Models of the future.

The principle aim of the PATHWAYS project is to develop possible transition pathways in Ethiopia to modern energy – specifically clean electricity – by incorporating behavioural issues in energy system modelling. It will address the knowledge gap on how evolving demand for electricity and demand side policies (such as efficiency improvements and price changes) affects energy system development pathways and their economics.

The Climate change impacts on hydro-generaltion and land suitability for agriculture in Least Developed Countries in the Greatr Mekong Sub-region (GMS) project aims to understand the impacts of climate change uncertainty on water availability and land suitability for agriculture production in the three least developed countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, namely, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. It also identifies measures to enhance the resilience of the economy, especially of the rural agriculture communities to long-term climate change.

iNUMBER (iNtegrated Urban Model for Built Environment Research) is a four-year (2017-2021) research collaboration between India and United Kingdom to help cities reduce their energy demand and improve their electricity and water services. Funded by the Newton-Bhabha Fund, iNUMBER is jointly supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in partnership with the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology.

South-North collaboration

The map below shows some of the responses from survey participants – country of residence, main countries of study and comments on the positive and negative aspects of South-North collaborations. The responses highlight the many challenges and opportunities for improvement in South-North collaboration in Energy and Development research. To add your own experiences or view the responses in detail, visit the South-North Collaboration page.