Max Lacey-Barnacle

I am a recipient of the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship award (2021 - 2024), focusing critically on the role that principles of Community Wealth Building can play in democratising low-carbon energy transitions, diversifying ownership, enhancing economic democracy and equitably retaining wealth and governance within local communities. My broader research and policy interests lie at the intersection of climate change policy and social inequality, equity and justice. I am particularly interested in energy, climate and environmental justice, policies and mechanisms for a Just Transition and opportunities for widespread community participation in low-carbon transitions. I am passionate about work that exists at the research-policy interface, ensuring engagement with core public, private and civil society stakeholders to maximise the impact of academic research.

I completed my PhD in 2019, which explored the energy justice implications of community and municipal energy organisational structures, alongside the role of intermediaries and networks in facilitating local engagement in low-carbon energy transitions. I continue to be fascinated by the emergence of new models of ownership and governance that encourage a more local, decentralised low-carbon transition pathway. I am equally fascinated by how such models democratise transitions and equitably distribute the benefits of the emerging low-carbon economy, or conversely, reinforce pre-existing social inequalities.

Before joining SPRU, I spent one year as a Policy Officer at the Energy Saving Trust, where I participated in Welsh, UK and EU energy and climate policy projects, focusing on community energy, energy efficiency and low-carbon transport initiatives. I have also previously worked for the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, focusing on extending energy justice research in the developing world and collaborating with academics from METU in Ankara, Turkey.

My work has been published in journals such as Energy Policy, Energy Research and Social Science, Applied Energy, Geography Compass, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, Joule and Energy for Sustainable Development. I frequently respond to energy and climate policy consultations across multiple levels of governance and aspire to regularly write blogs and opinion pieces utilising various media platforms. I have also taught on the Energy Justice ODL module, delivered lectures to MSc students on energy justice and gained Associate Fellow status at the Higher Education Academy in 2021.

I am currently involved in a CREDS funded project led by Professor Tim Foxon on 'Local Green New Deals' in the UK, which will conduct a comparative analysis of regional green recovery measures implemented by the Greater Brighton Economic Board and North of Tyne Combined Authority. Past projects include work with Dr Mari Martiskainen on the innovative FAIR project (2020 - 2023), funded by the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS). FAIR is looking at the overlaps between fuel and transport poverty in the UK’s energy transition and working across all four nations of the UK. I have also worked on the ESRC funded ROLES project (2020 - 2023), with SPRU colleagues Professor Adrian Smith, Professor Benjamin Sovacool and Dr Marie-Claire Brisbois. ROLES seeks to identify how European city-regions can accelerate the decarbonisation of energy systems through the digitalisation of energy infrastructure, in ways that also create societal benefits.