Daniel Chester

Profile

I joined the University of Leeds as Research Fellow in Energy and Macroeconomics in 2025. I work on the Leverhulme-funded project "Impacts of green growth and degrowth pathways using societal exergy analysis" led by Dr Paul Brockway, which applies an Exergy Economics approach (combining thermodynamics, energy analysis and economics) to assess the energy-emissions-economic impacts and implications of current economic ‘green growth’ and alternative ‘energy degrowth’ pathways. Key questions explored in this research include:

Q1. What is the relationship between energy efficiency and energy rebound?
Q2. How much primary energy will we need in the future to meet our energy service demands?
Q3. To what extent can we decouple primary energy use from GDP?

I conducted a PhD in Ecological Economics at Lancaster University from 2019-2025. My thesis "Timescales and Investment Dynamics in the Economy (TIDE) explores how investment decisions predetermine socio-economic futures through the creation of long-lived capital assets. It develops new methods for estimating the timescales and turnover dynamics of capital, which are insufficiently represented in traditional climate-economy 'integrated assessment models'. It uses these methods to model the carbon emissions embedded in the existing capital stock in 2020, and the capital stock projected to exist in 2030, to assess how delaying the net zero transition risks greater financial harms to the economy through the continued creation of 'stranded assets' (or the 'carbon bubble').

I have previously worked in politics. I am a co-ordinating editor of Degrowth Journal, an open access journal I helped establish in 2022.

Research interests

I am interested in all aspects of social-ecological transformation, pursuing alternative economies that meet climate and ecological targets while providing a good life for all. I have particularly focused on the macroeconomic and energy aspects of a low-carbon transition - using economic modelling to understand the roles of capital and energy in business as usual, 'green growth' and degrowth futures - but maintain an interest in the wider insights provided by ecological and heterodox economics, particularly regarding questions of degrowth policy, planning and strategy.

Qualifications

• PhD, Lancaster University
• BSc, Lancaster University

Professional memberships

• International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE)

Research groups and institutes

• Sustainability Research Institute
• Economics and Policy for Sustainability
• Energy and Climate Change Mitigation
• Social and Political Dimensions of Sustainability