MrLuke Hatton

Luke's research at Imperial College London is exploring how high costs of capital and other structural barriers are holding back clean energy investments in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), using a range of techno-economic and energy system models. His PhD research is aligned with the Climate Compatible Growth initiative, funded by the UK Foreign Office, which supports EMDEs in developing financeable energy transition plans. His research is supervised by Dr Gbemi Oluleye and Professor Adam Hawkes and he works closely with other colleagues across the Climate Compatible Growth academic network. He is a member of the Grantham Institute's Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Programme (Cohort 10) and was previously seconded to the Energy Investment Unit of the International Energy Agency, which he continues to work closely with on topics related to their Cost of Capital Observatory and tracking of energy-related investment trends. He is also linked with the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, a joint center of Columbia Law School and Columbia Climate School at Columbia University.

He previously worked as a Research Associate on the economics of green hydrogen production in Dr Iain Staffell's research group at the Centre for Environmental Policy (CEP), Imperial College London. His position was funded by the Integrated Development of Low-Carbon Energy Systems programme at Imperial and examined how the costs of producing green hydrogen from wind, solar and hybrid power is likely to vary across the globe. He is also a regular contributor to the Drax Electric Insights

Prior to academia, Luke was a Consultant at Element Energy, specialising in carbon capture and industrial decarbonisation, and has experience in policy work and advocacy through previous roles and projects completed at the UK Universities Climate Network and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. He holds a MEng in Engineering Science (first-class honours) from the University of Oxford. His potential to be a future leader in the UK decarbonisation space has been recognised through awards and scholarships from the Salters Institute, Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Engineering & Technology.