DrRichard Hanna

Research Fellow: 2026 -

Dr. Richard Hanna is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London. He is Deputy Theme Leader and Co-Investigator for the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) Responsive Research function, leading rapid evidence reviews, expert surveys and/or interviews according to changing policy maker needs. As Deputy Lead, Richard oversees activities within the research theme, develops ideas for new Responsive Research projects, and makes a substantial intellectual contribution to project design, conduct and delivery, in collaboration with other researchers across the UK.

Research Associate: CEP, Imperial, 2015 - 2025

Prior to his current role, Richard carried out systematic evidence reviews for UKERC’s Technology and Policy Assessment function. He lead-authored UKERC working papers for research projects on innovation timescales (2015) and best practices in heat decarbonisation (2016), translating these outputs to journal papers in Energy Policy and Nature Energy respectively. These projects were prominently cited in Climate Change Committee reports (‘The Fifth Carbon Budget’ and ‘Next Steps for UK Heat Policy’) and led directly to follow on consultancy projects for BEIS (2017-2018) and The Aldersgate Group (2018-2019).

Since this time, he has led various research projects, including appointing and managing expert advisory groups. This applies to more recent projects on energy models and disruption (2021 Energy Policy paper), ‘Green job creation, quality and skills’ (2022), ‘The future of home heating’ (2022), ‘Net-zero skills’ (2024), and ‘Accelerating energy efficiency retrofits in owner-occupied homes’ (2025). In 2023, he co-led an international survey and interview analysis of policy and regulatory support for aquifer thermal energy storage, working with researchers based in the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, to produce a paper published in the journal Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy. 

Dr. Hanna's 2024 Sustainability Science green jobs paper (already cited more than 100 times) was awarded the journal’s Best Paper Award, and synthesises international evidence showing that investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency can deliver more jobs than equivalent investment in fossil fuel power, and modest net employment growth at a national scale. He lead-authored and co-ordinated Imperial’s written evidence to the 2025 Energy Security and Net Zero Select Committee Inquiry on how to develop the UK’s clean energy workforce, giving oral evidence as an invited expert witness. His testimony drew upon recommendations from the 2024 Sustainability Science paper and the Net Zero Skills project, and directly informed the Committee’s final report, which cites his oral and written evidence multiple times.

Richard completed his PhD at the University of Surrey in 2013, examining the influence of installer business models on the rate of microgeneration uptake and on installation standards in UK homes, relating to solar PV, solar hot water, heat pumps and biomass boilers.

Evidence of esteem 

• Promoted to Research Fellow at Imperial College London, 2026.
• Deputy Lead / Researcher Co-Investigator on UKERC ‘Responsive Research Theme’, UKERC Phase 5, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council & Economic and Social Research Council (£13.8 million), 2024-2029.
• Researcher Co-Investigator on ‘Smart assessment, management and optimisation of urban geothermal resources (SmartRes)’, Natural Environment Research Council grant (£967,000), 2022-2026.
• Researcher Co-Investigator on 'Aquifer thermal energy storage for decarbonisation of heating and cooling: Overcoming technical, economic and societal barriers to UK deployment (ATESHAC)', Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant (£1.5 million), 2021-2025.
• Sustainability Science Best Paper Award 2024 for journal paper entitled ‘Job creation in a low carbon transition to renewables and energy efficiency: a review of international evidence’.
• Professional memberships: British Institute of Energy Economics; Energy Institute; Royal Geographical Society (RGS); Energy Geographies Research Group (part of RGS-IBG).
• Imperial College networks: Behaviour change in Energy and Environment Policy (BEEP); Grantham Institute affiliate; Imperial College Centre for Energy Policy and Technology (ICEPT); Systematic Reviews - Community of Practice.

National and international professional recognition

• Oral evidence provided to: the ESNZ Select Committee on how to develop the clean energy workforce; the Scottish Government on the draft Scottish Climate Change Plan; and the Independent Review of Net Zero (Skidmore Review).
• UK invited presentations: the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities; Edinburgh Climate Change Institute; EPSRC Network+ Decarbonisation of Heating and Cooling webinar; Sustainable Economies Research Group, University of the West of England; Sheffield Hallam University; Ulster University, Northern Ireland.
• International invited presentations: Leveraging a Climate-neutral Society Strategic Research Network annual meetings (2021 and 2023); City-scale Geothermal Energy Everywhere Webinar series; International Energy Agency ‘Renewable heating and cooling policy workshop’.
• Invitations to paid consultancy and expert advisor roles: for clients including UKRI / DESNZ, BEIS, The Aldersgate Group, The Climate Group and the MCS Charitable Foundation.

• Broad UK media coverage including quotes and citations in The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Independent, the BBC News website and The New Statesman.
• International policy document citations (at least 60 since 2019) of his academic papers by various international organisations including the EC, OECD, IMF, World Bank, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, IEA.