Summary
Krista Halttunen is a multi-disciplinary energy and climate change PhD researcher based at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London.
Krista's PhD research focuses on energy transitions, especially low-carbon pathways of the global Oil & Gas sector. She is on a NERC-funded studentship (2019-2023) on the Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Partnership at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment.
The title of Krista's PhD project is, "Exploring the future of the global oil industry in a 'well below 2 degrees' world". The project uses different modelling and qualitative techniques to map out possible future scenarios for the oil industry in the sustainable energy transition, including outcomes for oil companies, investors and the society as a whole. Krista is supervised by Dr Raphael Slade and Dr Iain Staffell. The project is carried out in collaboration with the non-profit CDP. Krista's other research interests include topics across the fields of energy systems, sustainability transitions. and sustainability in business. Krista's commentary has appeared in Climate Home News, (2), (3) and Grist, (2).
Before starting her PhD research, Krista worked as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and as a policy manager at Ofgem. She holds degrees in Physics and Philosophy (MPhysPhil) from Balliol College, Oxford, and Environmental Technology (MSc) from Imperial. Krista is also a family entrepreneur and a member of the Board of Directors at Halton Group, a global industrial company specialising in indoor air solutions for demanding spaces.
Publications
Journals
Halttunen K, Slade R, Staffell I, 2022, “We don't want to be the bad guys”: Oil industry's sensemaking of the sustainability transition paradox, Energy Research and Social Science, Vol:92, ISSN:2214-6296, Pages:102800-102800
Bricout A, Slade R, Staffell I, et al., 2022, From the geopolitics of oil and gas to the geopolitics of the energy transition: Is there a role for European supermajors?, Energy Research and Social Science, Vol:88, ISSN:2214-6296
Halttunen K, Slade R, Staffell I, 2022, What if we never run out of oil? From certainty of “peak oil” to “peak demand”, Energy Research and Social Science, Vol:85, ISSN:2214-6296, Pages:1-6
Halttunen K, 2021, The advent of relativity, Contemporary Physics, Vol:62, ISSN:0010-7514, Pages:112-112
Conference
Halttunen K, Staffell I, Slade R, Climate change and the future of the oil industry: perspectives from the front line of the transition, 12th International Sustainability Transitions Conference. Mainstreaming sustainability transitions: From research towards impact