Caroline Kuzemko
Advice & Feedback Hours Term Time: Thursdays 11:00-12:30 AND Fridays 15:00-16:00
Room: D1.13
Profile and Research Interests
Caroline is an Associate Professor in International Political Economy. She has research interests in:
- political economy of sustainable energy transitions
- sustainable energy politics and policy at various scales (international, domestic, local)
- ideas, institutions and change
- constructivist International Political Economy (IPE)
- processes of de- and re-politicisation
Research Projects:
Caroline is the Deputy Director of UKERC Phase 4, Theme 1, on UK Energy in a Global Context, and the Principal Investigator of 'Brexit & Beyond: UK Zero Carbon Energy Policy', which is one of the two Theme 1 projects. This project will firstly map, and then assess the implications of Brexit (whatever form it ultimately takes) for the UK's new, net zero emissions commitments - with a focus on energy policy and the politics that shape policy decisions.
She also works as part of the other UKERC Theme 1 project, the 'Geopolitics of Energy Transitions', and her work explores ways in which geopolitics, as a conceptual approach to understanding energy, needs to change to better account for sustainable, whole-system energy transitions.
Previously she held an ESRC Future Research Leaders grant and her project was: 'Power Distributions: Sustainable Energy & Municipal Authority'. Before joining Warwick, Caroline was a Senior Research Fellow in the Energy Policy Group at the University of Exeter, where she worked on an EPSRC funded project, ‘Innovation and Governance’.
Prior to her academic career, Caroline worked for 8 years as a Director at UBS on emerging market equities.
Publications (click here or see tab above for details)
Caroline is author of The Energy Security-Climate Nexus: Institutional Change in the UK and Beyond and a co-author of The Global Energy Challenge: Environment, Development and Security.
She co-edited a Special Section on 'New Directions in the IPE of Energy' in the Review of International Political Economy (26:1), and published articles in: Review of International Studies; Journal of European Public Policy; Environment & Planning C; Energy Research & Social Science; British Journal of Politics and International Relations; Utilities Policy; and Policy and Politics.
Impact & Networks
Caroline has worked with various organisations, local governments, BEIS, Ofgem, UK100, and MPs to help shape ideas and policies regarding sustainable energy transitions. One of her approaches to impact has been to assist policymakers in re-thinking and questioning policies and political institutions in order to better understand new routes to more equitable sustainable energy transitions. As an example of which, click here for her co-authored policy briefing outlining the need for a UK Local Sustainable Energy Taskforce.
From 2017-2018 she was a Member of West Midlands Combined Authority's (WMCA) Regional Energy Policy Commission on devolution and local sustainable energy policy. The commission published Powering West Midlands Growth: A Regional Approach to Clean Energy Innovation.
Caroline is the founder and convenor of the ‘Political Economy of Energy in Europe and Russia’ (PEEER) network; convenes the PaIS IPE Cluster; and is a Steering Committee member for the Warwick Global Research Priority Group: Energy.
Editorial Work
Caroline is Associate Editor of Energy Research and Social Science, and a co-editor of the Palgrave Macmillan pivot series on 'Progressive Energy Policy'.
Teaching
PO107 'Introduction to Politics'
PO3A4 'The Global Energy Challenge' (Term 1: 15 CATS)
PO4A5 'Politics of Climate Change' (Term 2: 15 CATS)
She is available for PhD supervision in the following areas: political economy of sustainable energy; energy policy and politics; the (geo-)politics of sustainable transitions; (de-)politicisation and institutional change.