Our Energy and Climate Change Experts

Heather Haydock - Energy & Climate Change Practice Director

Heather is Director of Ricardo-AEA's Energy & Climate Change practice, responsible for developing and implementing strategy and managing a team of ~80 people to achieve agreed annual business performance targets.

Heather has over 20 years’ experience in energy and climate change policy support at Ricardo-AEA. For the first six years she managed energy technology programmes for the UK Government, and was instrumental in setting up the first UK fuel cell programme. She then moved into policy consultancy, where she has been responsible for directing, managing and contributing to a range of projects in the areas of climate change policy analysis, energy technology forecasting and policy/programme evaluation for UK Government, the European Commission (EC), the International Energy Agency (IEA) and other national and international clients.

Heather’s project experience has included being Lead Advisor to the IEA’s Energy Technology Perspectives project, developing project performance indicators for the Intelligent Energy Europe programme, helping the Committee on Climate Change to set carbon budgets based on best available information on marginal abatement costs and advising public and private sector clients on carbon reduction and energy security issues. She has a degree in Chemical Engineering and a MBA.

Mahmoud Abu-Ebid

Mahmoud is a Chief Consultant with overall responsibility for CHP business. He has over 18 years of practical experience of energy use in industry and buildings, with an in depth knowledge of CHP technologies, applications and Government Policies. Over this time he has developed a good knowledge of energy markets reforms and policies and gained experience in dealing with CHP developers, Energy Services companies as well as Government Departments and their agencies, local authorities and other public sector organisations. As Chief Technical advisor to Defra, he provides policy and technical support on all CHP related aspects and represents Defra at a number of working groups dealing with CHP in the UK and Europe.

Christine St John Cox

As Ricardo-AEA’s knowledge leader for carbon management, Chris specialises in supporting organisations to develop and implement their sustainability and carbon strategies. She has worked extensively in the public and private sectors on a range of topics including regulation, greenhouse gas inventories, data management, and carbon reporting and mitigation activities. Between 2009 and 2011, she was the strategic advisor to the Carbon Disclosure Project on the UK Government’s Public Procurement Programme, which supports Government departments to engage with their suppliers and encourage emissions reduction.

Her knowledge is well grounded with a background in designing and overseeing the installation of mechanical building services, and managing repair and maintenance programmes. She is also a Chartered Building Services Engineer.

Dan Forster

Dan Forster has over ten years experience of policy evaluation and environmental economic appraisal, with a particular focus on the energy and environmental sectors. His expertise includes external costs assessment, life cycle analysis, policy appraisal, cost-benefit analysis, and evaluation. He has applied these techniques to air quality, climate change, water, waste and other environmental issues, and he has practical policy experience in the energy, transport, water, waste and agricultural sectors. 

Dan has led major studies for the UK Government and private sector covering the wider consideration of environmental, social and economic effects. He has particular expertise in climate change mitigation polices. This includes research to determine the optimal level of abatement (e.g. analysis of the social cost of carbon, and research on marginal abatement cost curves), but also applied consultancy to develop and implement guidelines for GHG policy appraisal.

Lisa Horrocks

Lisa Horrocks is Ricardo-AEA's Project Director for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation. She comes from an academic research background in the earth and atmospheric sciences, and over the last five years Lisa has built up an extensive track record of adaptation projects at local, regional and national Government level in the UK, as well as for the European Commission.

Prior to joining Ricardo-AEA, Lisa was responsible for providing advice on the impacts of climate change and adaptation, managing scientific research contracts, and developing UK domestic policy on adaptation at Defra, where she was also responsible for the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP).

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson has over ten years experience in the energy and environment policy arenas, working for private and public sector organisations. He has an in-depth knowledge of energy and climate policy issues, including emissions trading in particular, gained through successful delivery of many large projects. Recent projects include a review of the EU ETS for the European Parliament, a study of the issues surrounding the role of nuclear power in European energy policy for the European Commission, a review of personal carbon trading options for the Irish Sustainable Development Council and he is currently Ricardo-AEA's lead advisor to DECC and the Environment Agency on the development of the Carbon Reduction Commitment.

Colin McNaught

Colin has 16 years experience in the energy field covering economic, technical and policy studies across a wide range of technologies and techniques. Colin was Project Manager for the Scottish Energy Study, a review of energy supply and demand in Scotland, creating the first consistent dataset on energy in Scotland for over 10 years. He was also Project Manager for a feasibility study on Carbon Trading as a more cost effective means to offset emissions from new homes.