Dr David Barns

Profile

I am an interdisciplinary social scientist and policy specialist in heat decarbonisation. My current role is Research Fellow in Geosolutions: Social Science, Governance & Business Models for Local and Regional Geothermal Energy Use, within Geosolutions Leeds and the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) in the School of Earth and Environment. 

I am committed to tackling the climate emergency through positive and action-oriented research and application. I have over 10 years of experience working on the UK’s heat transition, combining academic study with professional delivery, primarily within local authority settings. 

From 2017-2022, I completed my PhD on socio-technical aspects of UK heat decarbonisation, exploring issues such as national and local policy, business models, and organisational decision-making, and how these affect local implementation of thermal energy storage in low carbon heat systems.

Research interests

I am particularly interested in place-based aspects of the energy transition, supporting city local authorites and other local actors to deliver positive change commensurate with the scale of the climate challenge. 

In my research fellowship within Geosolutions Leeds, I am applying this focus to the role of the subsurface in decarbonisartion and the energy transition. I am taking a local and regional approach to understand how the interplay of national and local policy, institutional and governance arrangements, city energy planning and competing demands will impact on use of the subsurface.

Outside of my professional activites I am also co-founder of the climate and social justice organisation Our Future Leeds, through which I co-developed the grant proposal for Climate Action Leeds, a £2.5m project for socially-just climate action in Leeds, funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund. I continue to support delivery of the project through my role as a volunteer director for Leeds Love It Share It.

Qualifications

• PhD "Unlocking the potential for thermal energy storage in the UK", University of Leeds
• MSc Renewable Energy Development, Heriot-Watt University
• BSc Management & International Relations, Lancaster University

Student education

• Guest lecturer MSc Sustainable Cities, module City Systems: Sustainable Housing
• Supervisor for SOEE5020M Research Project 

Research groups and institutes

• Sustainability Research Institute
• Geosolutions Leeds