John is a Professor in Energy and Climate Policy at the Sustainable Research Institute, University of Leeds with over 20 years of experience in energy and climate policy.  John’s research interests include energy demand, resource productivity, energy and economy modelling, carbon accounting and exploring low carbon transitions. 

John has been the Director of a number of large research centres that has employed a range of modelling approaches to understand how changes in production and consumption can contribute to a low carbon future. John was the Director of the Centre for Industrial Energy, Materials and Products (CIE-MAP – www.ciemap.ac.uk), a £4 million initiative funded by the UK Research Council. The centre explored how using material and products differently could contribute to the UK carbon targets. John is now a Co-Director for the Centre for Research in Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS – www.creds.ac.uk). This £19 million initiative is a new research centre established in 2018 with a vision to make the UK a leader in understanding the changes in energy demand needed for the transition to a secure an affordable, low carbon energy system.

John’s research is applied in various arena having been an advisor to a number of UK Government departments, Government Select Committees and agencies such as the Committee on Climate Change. John’s research team are responsible for providing annual headline Government indicators, including an indicator on “Consumption-based GHG emissions” and “Resource Productivity”. His research findings have provided evidence and influenced many Government publications related to energy demand projections, climate policy and resources and waste strategies. John was also a lead author for the International Panel on Climate Change, Working Group III.