Michael Bradshaw
Mike Bradshaw is professor of global energy at Warwick Business School.
In June 2015 Professor Bradshaw called for independent funding for research into community engagement and public attitudes to shale gas. Speaking at the Shale UK conference in Liverpool, he told delegates:
- 'It is not our role to be advocates. The role of academic research is to provide independent evidence to add to the debate. It is not our role to compensate for the inadequacies of the government or industry.
- The biggest problem we face is that we cannot get the funding from independent sources on a sufficient scale to carry out social science research. For whatever reason, the government is happy to spend millions on drilling but not on funding the social science research.'
Professor Bradshaw pointed out that the Royal Society 2012 report on shale gas had recommended a cross-council programme of research involving social, earth and engineering sciences. Despite the report being used by the government to endorse fracking, “Nothing has been done to realise that recommendation. We are anxious to play a role to inform the debate but there simply isn’t the funding. But if we were to do it, it would not be as advocates.[1]
Biography
- Prof. Bradshaw's academic background is in human geography. He competed his undergraduate training at the University of Birmingham (BSc) and he has an MA from the University of Calgary (Alberta) and he gained his PhD at the University of British Columbia. He works at the interface between economic and political geography, energy studies and international relations. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (and past Vice President) and an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.
- Prof. Bradshaw's research has focused on the geopolitical economy of global energy. For almost 20 years he has studied the development of the Sakhalin oil and gas projects in Russia's Far East. This has led to research on energy security in northeast Asia. He is currently examining Russia’s plans to develop its liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry. From 2008 to 2011 he was engaged in a programme of research examining the relationship between energy security, globalization and climate change, funded by a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship. In October 2013 Polity Press published his book entitled Global Energy Dilemmas. He is currently completing a research project on Global Gas Security that is funded by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). He plans to continue his research on the global geopolitical economy of the gas industry and is now working on the prospects for the development of shale gas in the UK and Europe (he is involved in a Pan European project on shale gas). He also plans to continue research on North American fossil fuel abundance and the global geopolitics of fossil fuels with further support from UKERC.
Affiliations
- ↑ Drill or Drop, “Scandalous” shortage of money for research into public engagement on fracking, conference told, coverage of the Shale UK conference in Liverpool, 24 June 2015
