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Our October 2024 academic spotlight features Dr Yaroslav Melekh, Research Fellow in Economics of Energy Innovation and Systems Transition
Tell us a bit about yourself
I’m a Research Fellow at UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources. After my PhD and prior to joining UCL, I had public and private sector careers. More recently, I worked as the Country Programme Manager and Advisor on Climate and Environment at the Embassy of Sweden in Kyiv and the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). In this role, I oversaw a portfolio of development cooperation projects on energy & climate, collaborating with the Ukrainian and Swedish governments, multilateral development banks (MDBs), diplomatic missions, and international organisations. Before that, I also worked as a consultant on renewable energy investments and decarbonisation policy, and as a bioenergy market analyst.
What are your research interests?
My research interests are very much intertwined with my professional career outside academia. At UCL, I’m working on a range of interconnected issues around energy economics and climate finance in developing countries. Specifically, I look at policies that facilitate the deployment of renewables, how energy transition shapes electricity market design and the role of energy storage and electricity interconnection. Also, my interests extend to the renewables’ investment risks in developing countries and how they impact the costs of capital as well as de-risking instruments.
Tell us about some of your recent work on European issues
One of the projects I’ve been recently working on is the UK-EU energy trade and cooperation in partnership with the UCL European Institute and sponsored by the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). In this project, we look at the political economy of electricity trade in the North Seas in the context of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement and how that could impact the deployment of offshore hybrid interconnectors and, more broadly, energy transition in Europe.
I also work on the role of green hydrogen in Ukraine’s green recovery reconstruction supported by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). We’re exploring the tradeoffs between the country’s short-term energy needs, long-term economic opportunities, and the energy transition. It also has a European context of Ukraine’s EU accession process as well as EU-Ukraine strategic cooperation on hydrogen and, more broadly, energy security and electricity interconnection.
Also, with support from UCL Public Policy, I work as a Policy Fellow at the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), trying to understand how governments use research evidence and analysis to inform not only their own domestic policymaking but also when engaging with the European counterparts in areas of mutual dependency such as energy security and decarbonisation.
What does Europe mean to you and why are you interested in it?
Europe is going through the process of reinventing its identity. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted the EU to significantly reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, review its energy security and set ever-ambitious climate targets. In fact, energy security and the military conflict, by some estimates, have played a more significant role in the EU transition than stringent ‘green’ policies. At the same time, the EU and the UK are mutually interdependent on electricity trade and security of supply, but post-Brexit trade tensions still hinder low-carbon investments. All of these will have significant implications for the pace of pan-European decarbonisation and regional energy security, and Europe’s convening power in international climate action.