Spotlight on Dr Lucy Baker
Research Fellow in the Centre for Innovation and Energy Demand
Previous Research
Before joining academia I worked for non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including Oxfam, Amnesty International and Bretton Woods Project.
Whilst working at the Bretton Woods Project I looked closely at the role of the World Bank in energy and climate change finance and its influence over energy policy in countries that received World Bank loans.
When I worked at Amnesty International, I contributed to the organisation’s work on understanding the links between environmental and human rights abuses.
Such abuses included the destruction of livelihoods as a result of oil, gas and coal extraction, forced or coerced removal of people from their land without adequate compensation and the exploitation of labour, including child labour.
I care about a lot about these issues – energy, socio-economic equality and equitable access to resources. I felt a PhD would enable me to look at them in more depth.
My PhD focussed on the political economy of South Africa’s electricity sector. I found that once you start to look at national level developments, the role of international trends and influences also become important. I really like the interdisciplinary nature of my research because energy is an issue that is at once social, political, environmental, economic and technological
Current Research
Currently I’m looking at issues relating to ‘embodied emissions’. The term ‘embodied emissions’ refers to the greenhouse gas emissions embodied in goods and services which are then imported in to a country. While the UK has reduced its territorial emissions, it has also outsourced a lot of its manufacturing and heavy industry in the last four decades. Meanwhile the emissions embodied within the goods and services the country consumes have actually increased.
Research into embodied emissions calls into question how carbon emissions should be measured. For instance, while China is one of the world’s largest emitters, as the world’s’ largest manufacturing economy, Chinese production now accounts for 20 per cent of the UK’s imported emissions. So in terms of understanding the complex interdependencies between countries there’s a big role for policy and research in this area that looks beyond national boundaries. There is also a justice element to this research.
Measuring emissions from a consumption perspective is really complicated. There is no agreed methodology for how this should be done, which then serves as a barrier to further action. There are also questions around where the responsibility should lie; at the level of the individual, the company or the government? Given the nature of international supply chains, the polluter is not necessarily a single entity such as a company or government and could be based in various different countries, so it gets complicated.
I am still interested in South Africa, and have been doing research into the rise of renewable energy industry there. The country to date has depended heavily on coal for its electricity generation, but is now introducing a large- scale commercial renewable energy industry which will make a small but significant contribution to electricity generation. South Africa is a very interesting case study as the country’s experience has implications for how utility scale renewable energy may develop across the rest of the continent.
It represents the first time in South Africa that independent power production from private companies has been introduced, where for the most part, the electricity sector has been managed by a state owned monopoly.
Lucy Baker with Holle Linnea Wlokas, Stellenbosch University & Stephen Forder, the Energy Blog.
I feel that my research is having impact although perhaps in a different way to my previous work as a campaigner with NGOs.
My research has been used by various civil society, government and industry organisations. I have also presented my research at industry conferences and the South African Wind Energy Association put one of my working papers on their website. I have achieved significant media and NGO coverage of my work in the UK, South Africa and elsewhere. In addition to publishing peer-reviewed journal articles, I make an effort to write working papers and blogs which are publicly accessible both in terms of ease of reading and to those who are interested in my research but who do not have access to academic journal articles.
The Future
One of my future projects is working with Wei Shen from the Institute of Development Studies which will look at the influence of Chinese investment in the South Africa’s renewable energy industry. One of the challenges to this research is being able to interview some members of industry and government departments.
I like the relative autonomy of academia and the dynamic research environment here in Sussex. I wouldn’t rule out moving back to NGOs or maybe working for a think tank or research institute. However in my current job, I am under less pressure to produce regular policy recommendations than I was when working for NGOs. This means that I have a bit more space to investigate the complexity behind the issues. I think that I now have a better idea of what is going on even if I can’t always put forward the solutions.