Arnault Barichella

Arnault Barichella is currently a post-doctoral researcher in the social sciences at the University Paris-Saclay for the HTASE project (Hydrogène et Technologies Avancées des Systèmes Energétiques), which forms part of the France 2030 strategy and focuses on green hydrogen and batteries in the Ile-de-France region. This project brings together a consortium of 15 partners around Paris-Saclay University, including academic and higher education institutions, regional and industrial actors. Arnault’s research in this project focuses on multilevel governance, including the potential for deploying new green hydrogen and advanced energy technologies in different sectors (transport, industry, buildings) across the Île-de France. Previously, Arnault worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the PREVENT project (‘Predicting the Evolution and Biological Impact of the Oceanic Exposome during the Environmental Transition’) and the NESMO project (‘New Energy Sustainable Mobilities’), both at the University Paris-Saclay. 

Arnault obtained his Masters’ degree in European Affairs from Sciences Po Paris (2012-14), and received a BA degree in Modern History from Oxford University (2008-11). He was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard in 2018-19, affiliated with the Department of Government. Arnault defended his PhD thesis in Political Science at Sciences Po Paris in 2022 at the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics. His research interests are two-fold. His doctoral dissertation, under the supervision of Dr. Colin Hay, focused on the role of sub-national actors, such as cities, regions and states, within the global climate regime. This constitutes his first main axis of research, involving a comparative study of the articulation of multilevel governance and subnational climate initiatives in Europe and the United States. Arnault’s thesis was published as a book in June 2023 by Palgrave Macmillan in their Energy, Climate and the Environment series. 

Arnault has been invited to present this first research axis at numerous conferences: George Washington University and Georgetown in the United States, the Universities of Stavanger and of Oslo in Norway (2022), as well as at Paris-Saclay University and AUDENCIA Business School in France. He was also was selected to be a member of the Sciences Po Paris delegation to the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Glasgow (2021). Each semester from 2020 to 2023, Arnault taught a class for the Collège universitaire at Sciences Po Paris on ‘Global Climate Politics: Comparative EU-US perspectives’. Since Fall 2023, Arnault teaches an Étude de Cas entitled ‘The COP Negotiations in the Global Climate Change Regime’ at the Graduate level for Sciences Po’s École d’affaires publiques. This class combines the acquisition of theoretical knowledge, followed by practical engagement whereby students participate in three different COP simulations under different formats. Arnault also teaches these classes at the University Paris-Dauphine since 2022 and at the University Paris-Saclay since 2024. 

Arnault’s second main axis of research focuses on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and digital technologies, especially in relation to critical infrastructure; he works for the Jacques Delors Institute as an affiliated researcher on these issues. Arnault contributed a book chapter on ‘Cybersecurity and Data Protection in the Power Sector’ in Considine J., Cote S., Cook D. and Wood G. (eds.) - A Research Agenda for Energy Politics (Edward Elgar, 2023). Palgrave Macmillan subsequently selected Arnault to be editor-in-chief for the Palgrave Handbook of Cybersecurity, Technologies and Energy Transitions. The aim of the Handbook, the first of its kind dedicated to these topics, is to collect research, thinking and practice that captures the complex and subtle interconnections between two transitions that lie at the heart of current societal transformations: the dual digital and energy transitions. In addition to a broad range of contributing experts, Arnault contributed two chapters within the Handbook, developing his research on links between the twin climate and digital transitions. 

The Handbook has led to a new academic book series entitled Palgrave studies in the climate and digital transitions, launched in 2026. This series builds on the research that was conducted in the Handbook, expanding and broadening the thematic and disciplinary ambit to new topics of research. Arnault has also been invited to participate in a number of conferences to present his research on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and digital technologies. Highlights include at the French War College, the European Commission, the International Forum on Cybersecurity, the University of Oslo, the University of Rennes, the National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics Bucharest, the European Digital Health Summit in Madrid, along with the CRIP (Club des Responsables d'Infrastructure, de technologies et de Production informatique) Symposium in Deauville. 

The UN Climate Change regime and the articulation of multi-level governance. A case study of the global cities of Paris, Boston and New York, under the supervision of Dr. Colin Hay.