People jumping, edited photo by Val Vesa on Unsplash

Dan Van der Horst

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City deals & climate action

Project Researcher

University of Edinburgh

Dr. Dan van der Horst is a Professor in Energy, Environment and Society. He has published extensively on sustainability transitions in both socio-technical and socio-ecological systems, assessing (often conflicting) drivers and values in the management and governance of scarce but multi-functional resources. Dan embraces discipline-agnostic, policy-engaged methods to map and understand uneven spatio-temporal patterns of change. Within CREDS, and in collaboration with Edinburgh colleagues Jan and Mags, his research is in particular focused on (stagnation, innovation and divergence) in urban development strategies and local climate governance initiatives. This links to ongoing work on supporting the Scottish Government Housing Strategy, reducing personal exposure to urban air pollution, and setting up the Edinburgh Climate Commission.

In the past Dan has led various national and international research projects on sustainability innovations in land use, on energy social enterprises and on household adoptions of smart metering (> £2M, funded by ESRC, EPSRC, NERC and various EU sources). He is keen and proud to combine research with teaching – on the Edinburgh MSc programme in Energy, Society and Sustainability, which he launched in 2017.

Policy & Governance

Publications

Banner photo credit: Val Vesa on Unsplash