Both energy and political landscapes are changing in the UK, but so far no analysis has considered how these movements towards greater decentralisation relate to one another. Indeed, local authorities are becoming increasingly involved in enabling and providing sustainable energy programmes whilst, at the same time, many are applying for and securing devolution deals. Some scholars and policy analysts have argued that decentralising energy will be vital in securing popular buy-in to sustainable energy transitions through greater civic participation whilst others are point towards the power of the local in delivering better-attuned services. This research project will reveal the details of how these two decentralisation movements interact with one another in practice by exploring and mapping five local authority sustainable energy programmes and critically examining their relationships with central government.
This research is timely and innovative. It is timely because according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), whose job it is to monitor the UK's progress on climate mitigation, the UK is at risk of missing its Fourth Carbon Budget and because central government support for solar and wind generation has also recently been cut (Energy Spectrum 2015). At the same time, however, local authorities have been emerging as one area of innovation with regard to sustainable energy, partly by creating new energy companies that operate according to non-traditional business models and partly by offering supply services focused on affordability. The project is innovative in that it combines conceptual insights from socio-technical transitions, political science and human geography to reveal the emerging role of local authorities in sustainable transitions whilst also exploring these changes within the context of political decentralisation.
This project has been designed with input from Ofgem, the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) and two local government personnel. It aims to engage on a regular basis with practitioners and stakeholders at the local authority level with the intention of on-going knowledge exchange and co-production about this fast changing area. The project is also designed so that local authorities will have the opportunity to engage with one-another through a targeted, practitioners' workshop. Towards the end of the project findings about how local authorities and central government work together in practice, in particular with regard constraints and opportunities for improvement, will be shared with Ofgem, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and local authority networks such as the Local Government Association. The findings from this research project should be relevant not only to academics working on local government and local energy in the UK, but also to scholars interested in questions of scale and of civic participation in sustainable energy transitions. By undertaking and completing this project the PI will be given a valuable opportunity to develop and further improve her research skills, create new networks, produce groundbreaking research and to continue on her trajectory to becoming a world leader in the field of climate and energy governance.

Potential Impact:
From the outset of her academic career, the PI's research activities have been informed, designed and in some instances co-produced with engagement beyond academia in mind. This can be evidenced through her work with the Industry and Parliament Trust (IPT) in bringing MPs and energy practitioners together to debate, discuss and better understand energy issues from each others' perspective. Her research methodology relies in part on interviews and the 80 or so interviews that the PI has undertaken with policymakers, and other stakeholders, within energy and climate circles have allowed her not only to gather information but also to establish on-going research collaborations. These have led to invitations to present her work informally in DECC, Ofgem. It is through adopting an informal approach that further knowledge exchange and ideas about future research projects can come through. Indeed, it is from on going engagement with policymakers, and other practitioners, that the idea for this current research project has emerged. Given that local energy governance is increasingly important in policy-making terms, but is also a fast emerging field in terms of practice, there is plenty of scope for impact beyond academia.
Beneficiaries include:
1. Relevant councillors and staff in Nottingham City Council, Peterborough City Council, Cardiff City Council, Bristol City Council and Cornwall County Council. Local authorities are on steep learning curves with regard to sustainable innovations and dealing with central government energy policies and regulations. The emphasis will be on knowledge exchange achieved by bringing together energy personnel from the different local authorities at a practitioners workshop on sustainable energy innovations and political devolution;
2. At Ofgem the Future Consumers and Sustainability team are actively conducting research into new and innovative sustainable energy business models and local authority energy programmes are relevant to this work. The PI will build on her existing relationship with Jeff Hardy to exchange knowledge about how central government policy and regulations may need to adapt to better accommodate local authority energy. The PI will also build on Ofgem relationships to engage with the Community Energy Unit, and Sam Kennedy in particular, on opportunities and constraints at the local authority level;
3. The Environment and Sustainability Committee of the Welsh Assembly are conducting research to establish how best to involve Welsh local authorities in sustainable energy programmes, also seeking to draw lessons from practice elsewhere. The PI will build on existing research relationships to engage representatives of the Environment and Sustainability Committee and to invite them to attend the specialised practitioners' workshop to participate in knowledge exchange. Inter-relationships between the Welsh devolved assembly and central UK government will differ, but learning from other local authorities' experiences, innovations and how they have overcome barriers to change will be relevant here;
4. The Core Cities Network and the Local Government Association are driving forces of the devolution movement in the UK. Sustainable communities, innovation and climate change are all areas of focus for these organisations;
5. Further beneficiaries will be NGOs, such as CSE and IPPR, that are interested in local authority energy and/or political devolution, and independent energy companies, such as Ovo, that work with local authorities to offer energy services;
6. The PI will use existing relationships with the IPT's energy team to organise a workshop bringing interested MPs together with representatives of local authorities and other energy partners;
7. The PI will build on media and other outreach experiences to disseminate research findings with wider audiences interested more broadly in energy, climate change and local services and opportunities.