Please tell us about your role at Strathclyde.

I hold the ScottishPower Chair in Smart Grids in the Institute for Energy and Environment (InstEE) and lead a research group concerned with planning and operation of the energy system and the electricity system in particular.

I also contribute to teaching and am one of the co-Directors of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), a multi-disciplinary, multi-university research collaboration aimed at informing the energy transition where I lead a theme on energy system infrastructure.

Along with a colleague at Manchester, I’m one of the Scientific Directors of an Electrical Infrastructure Research Hub established with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.

Beyond the UK, I’m involved with the Conseil International des Grands Réseaux Electriques and the Power Systems Computation Conference.

I also end up doing quite a bit of work with policymakers and the gas and electricity regulator, such as chairing an Energy Networks Strategic Leadership Group for the Scottish Government and acting as technical advisor to Ofgem in their review of a major electricity system incident that happened in August 2019.

In common with many of my colleagues in InstEE, a lot of the research my group does is in collaboration with industry. A big part of doing our research is listening to people outside – in industry and in policy circles, in particular – to understand what their needs and concerns are.

A big part of doing our research is listening to people outside – in industry and in policy circles, in particular – to understand what their needs and concerns are.

Overall? I'm probably trying to juggle too many hats for my different roles or keep too many plates spinning – I worry a lot about breaking them – but there are so many interesting things that crop up in this area of work and I’m lucky to have good allies around me. It's lovely to have the opportunity to get involved, and it’s hard to say no. As I get older, I see my role as being more and more about helping students and younger colleagues realise opportunities.

What inspired you to enter your field?

I studied electrical and electronic engineering as an undergrad because someone told me engineering would be useful; otherwise, I had no family contacts to tell me what university would be like, let alone what engineering involved.

I ended up getting a link to the generation and transmission of electricity through – by chance, really – landing an undergraduate sponsorship with the old Central Electricity Generating Board (I’m showing my age!). However, it wasn’t until halfway through my PhD on power system operation that I started to enjoy it.

It was also around that time – the early 1990s – that I started to realise how important it would be to reduce carbon emissions from electricity production even though I remember getting a job rejection letter at the end of my PhD from an HR person at National Grid that said “your interests in the environment are not commensurate with our priorities as a customer-led company”. I’m very glad to say that National Grid – where I did end up working for 7 years later on – has a very different attitude towards the environment now!

I’m also glad that I did spend a good number of years in industry. To the extent that I had any kind of career plan at the time, it wasn’t part of it but I feel that it’s really helped me to understand the industrialists’ language and the kinds of commercial pressures they’re under.

You’re a member of the Climate Change Committee, the UK’s independent advisor to government on climate change. Can you explain what that means and what your role is? 

The Climate Change Committee was formed by an Act of Parliament in 2008 and has 8 members. I became one of them in April 2019, asked to take a particular interest in what’s happening in the electricity sector and in Scotland.

We provide independent advice on setting and meeting carbon budgets and preparing for climate change, and monitor progress in reducing emissions and achieving carbon budgets and targets. We’re ably supported by a full-time Secretariat, currently numbering around 20 people, but everything we say has to be reviewed and agreed by the Committee as a whole. (My colleagues on it include leading climate scientists, a behavioural scientist and an economist).

I joined at an exciting time when our advice on net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 was being finalised. We followed that up with advice on the 6th Carbon Budget in December 2020.

What do you hope COP26 will achieve?

I think everyone’s main hope is that we’ll get a full set of ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’, i.e. promises to deliver a certain level of emissions reduction by 2030, that add up to something that gives us a much better than even chance of limiting global temperature rise to significantly below 2°C and, beyond that, no more than 1.5°C relative to pre-industrial levels.

There is also hope that high-income countries will commit to providing financial support to low-income countries on climate action adding up at least $100 billion per year. Unfortunately, although we might not be far off the financial aid target (and have to hope that it won’t involve game playing with other aid packages), there have been suggestions from various places recently that we won’t make it on the NDCs.

Every tenth of a degree of avoided temperate rise counts...

However, that doesn’t mean that everyone stops trying: the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is about an ongoing process and every tenth of a degree of avoided temperate rise counts.

More locally, I hope that the attention the arrival of the COP in Scotland brings to climate change will help a lot more people not just to understand the importance of action on climate change but to feel that it’s entirely within our grasp and absolutely worth committing to. When the COP has left town, we will all need to follow up on that.

You’re part of the COP26 Universities Network. What role do you think the sector will play in helping to deliver the aims of COP26, now and in the future?

University researchers across the UK have played key roles in helping to build evidence showing that the extraordinary climate change we’ve seen in the last 150 years is due to human activity and highlighting what that means for societies in every part of the world now and in the coming decades.

We’re also showing what we can do about it: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while still meeting society’s needs, and to adapt to the effects of climate change that are already being felt. Encouragingly, a lot of universities are now realising that we can set an example by reducing our own emissions – Roddy Yarr and his team are leading work on that for Strathclyde.

Encouragingly, a lot of universities are now realising that we can set an example by reducing our own emissions.

A sample of the work of UK university researchers can be seen in the COP26 Universities Network’s “Climate Innovation Showcase”, hosted by us. (I chaired the group that organised it, fantastically supported by colleagues, especially here at Strathclyde).

A lot of that work is ongoing, and more besides, much of which is at Strathclyde. Colleagues in my own group are working on things like decarbonisation of heat and how the distribution networks can enable it, and how to ensure that supplies of electricity from a system shorn of unabated use of fossil fuels are sufficiently resilient.

There’s a lot to do. As a former colleague from my days in industry put it, university researchers can help industry – and policy makers – answer questions they can’t answer; we can also ask the questions they never thought of asking.