School of Earth and Environment

John Barrett Professor John Barrett

Professor of Sustainability Research

Telephone number: +44(0) 113 34 32394
Email address: j.r.barrett@leeds.ac.uk
Room: 9.109

Biography

I joined the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) in February, 2011 as a Chair in Sustainability Research. My research interests include sustainable consumption and production (SCP) modelling, carbon accounting and exploring the transition to a low carbon pathway. I have an extensive knowledge of the use of Multi-Regional Environmental Input-Output modelling to understand the effectiveness of strategies and policies to deliver a low carbon economy.

My research is predominately funded by the UK Government (Defra) and the UK Energy Research Centre. These key areas of research have involved the building of global trade models to understand the embedded carbon emissions in goods and services and estimating the upstream carbon emissions from emerging energy technologies. The techniques that I developed as part of my research are now used by numerous government departments to understand the consumer emissions of the UK as well as the carbon emissions embedded in products.

John was one of the lead advisors to Defra in relation to the development of PAS2050 and was commissioned by Defra to lead on understanding the carbon footprint of trade. John has been selected as a lead author for the IPCC 5th Assessment for Working Group III.

John has appeared regularly on Radio 4 news and discussion programmes, written numerous policy reports on SCP issues for a wide range of audiences.

Current Research Projects

Current PhD Students

Areas of PhD Supervision

  • Sustainable consumption and production modelling
  • The carbon footprint of goods and services
  • The Carbon emissions of cities
  • Understanding the transition to a low carbon economy / society

Publications