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Prof Jim Watson

Prof Jim Watson

Professor of Energy Policy

Bartlett School Env, Energy & Resources

Faculty of the Built Environment

Joined UCL
15th Jun 2018

Research summary

Energy policy and energy systems
  • Leadership of major research programmes on the UK energy transition including the UK Energy Research Centre
  • Expertise on energy policy, energy system change and energy security
Innovation systems for clean energy
  • Innovation policies in the UK and other countries
  • Economic and policy research on specific low carbon technologies and systems, including carbon capture and storage and decentralised energy technologies
Energy and development
  • Leadership of research on low carbon transitions and innovation in developing countries
  • Energy futures and policies in China

Teaching summary

Current PhD students:
  • Irene Maffini on finance and low carbon innovation (UKERC studentship)

  • Anna Watson on low carbon innovation systems (UKERC studentship)

Completed PhD students:
  • Emily Cox (2017) 'Assessing energy security in a low-carbon context. The case of electricity in the UK'

  • Jonathan Dolley (2016) 'Sustainability, resilience and governance of an urban food system: a case study of peri-urban Wuhan'

  • Tammy-Ann Sharp (2014) 'Exploring the potential impacts of Carbon, Capture and Storages Technologies on the Diversity of the UK electricity system to 2050'

  • Jose Opazo (2014): 'The politics of systems innovation for emerging technologies: understanding the uptake of off-grid renewable electricity in rural Chile'

  • Jenny Lieu (2013): 'Influences of policy learning, transfer and post transfer learning in the development of China’s wind power sector'

  • Dierk Bauknecht (2011): 'Transforming the Grid: Electricity system governance and network integration of distributed generation'

  • Mehdi Majidpour (2011): 'The Dynamics of Technological Catching-up: The Case of Iran’s Gas Turbine Industry'

  • Rudi Haum (2011): 'Transfer of Low-Carbon Technology under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: The Case of the Global Environment Facility and its Market Transformation Approach in India'

  • Zeeda Fatimah Mohamad (2009): 'The role of universities in national catching-up strategies: fuel cell technology in Malaysia and Singapore'

Biography

I am Professor of Energy Policy at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, Director of the UK Energy Research Centre and an Associate with SPRU, University of Sussex.

Before joining UCL, I was based at SPRU from 1993-2018. From Dec 2008 to Jan 2013, I was Director of SPRU's Sussex Energy Group. I was appointed as the Research Director of the UK Energy Research Centre in Feb 2013, and have been its Director since January 2015. 

I am a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, a member of the UK government's fossil fuel price expert panel, the UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund strategic advisory group and a judge for the Queens Awards for Enterprise: Sustainable Development.

I have over twenty years of research experience on climate change, energy and innovation policy. I have been a specialist adviser to the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee for its inquiry into The UK's Energy Supply: Security or Independence? (Apr-Oct 2011); the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee for its inquiries on the Draft Climate Change Bill, Climate Change: The Citizen's Agenda and Energy Efficiency and Fuel Poverty (Mar 2006 to Jun 2009); and the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee for its inquiry on resilience of elecricity infrastructure (2014/15)

Previous advisory roles include DECC and Defra's social science expert panel (2012-16); Council Member of the British Institute for Energy Economics (2004-16); Nuffield Council on Bioethics working party on new approaches to biofuels (2009-11); Lead Expert with the UK government Foresight project on Sustainable Energy Management and the Built Environment (2007-2009); and the IPPR New Era Economics panel (2010-12).

International roles include: Panel Member, Academy of Sciences of South Africa consensus study on Green Technologies in South Africa (2012-14); and Visiting Scholar, Energy Technology Innovation Policy group, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (2008).

Publications

Contact

Email
j.watson@ucl.ac.uk
Address
Room 405
Central House
14 Upper Woburn Place
London

Watch: Can we have a low carbon energy system and keep the lights on?

This lecture explores how energy security is changing as the UK energy system decarbonises. Then discusses a recent assessment of future energy security by the UK Energy Research Centre. Concluding with some policy implications, particularly for the implementation of the government's Clean Growth Strategy.