Research in focus: Holly Caggiano

Name:

Holly Caggiano

My pronouns:

she/her

Title:

Assistant Professor, Climate Justice & Environmental Planning

Faculty/Department/Unit:

School of Community and Regional Planning, Faculty of Applied Science

Location:

Vancouver

Year I started working at UBC:

2023

Provide an overview of your research in 75 words or less:

My recent work explores what drives support for large-scale energy projects. We find that people are more likely to support energy projects that are community-owned, create jobs, and generate solar energy, but local elected officials underestimate public support for these projects. Since local elected officials make decisions about new energy projects and negotiate the benefits they bring to communities, aligning perceptions could improve progress toward just energy transitions.

What first motivated you (or motivates you) to conduct your research?

Thoughtful and intentional work on community benefits opens opportunities for energy and climate transitions to improve not only our global environment, but also local health and livelihoods.

What do you hope will change as a result of this research?

I hope this work encourages more sustained open dialogue between local elected officials and their constituents. State/province and national governments often set climate and energy targets, but many project-specific decisions are made at the local level and impact communities differently. Bringing more people into these conversations can help correct misperceptions and create opportunities for creative community benefits.

Describe any interesting recent research milestones

Our paper was published in Nature Energy in August 2024. Further, our team (led by Elke Weber at Princeton University) was recently selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Evolution and Diffusion Studies 4 program to study community benefits agreements for large-scale solar projects.

Learn more:

PLACE lab: https://hollycaggiano.com/placelab/ 
SCARP page: https://scarp.ubc.ca/directory/holly-caggiano
Paper in Nature Energy: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-024-01603-w