Arnault Barichella
PhD
Research Topics
Climate and energy policies in Europe and the United States; Sustainable cities and sub-national actors; Cybersecurity and digital technologies.
Arnault Barichella is currently a post-doctoral researcher in the social sciences for the ‘New Energy Sustainable Mobilities’ (NESMO) Project at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (MSH), Université Paris-Saclay. His work focuses on the role of sustainable and smart cities, including the feasibility for deploying new technologies in the transportation sector (such as Plug-in-Hybrid Electric Vehicles) across the Ile-de France region.
Arnault defended his PhD thesis in Political Science at Sciences Po on December 14th, 2022.
Arnault’s research interests are two-fold. His doctoral dissertation, under the supervision of Dr. Colin Hay, focuses on the role of sub-national actors, such as cities, regions and federal states, within the global climate regime. This constitutes his first main axis of research, which involves a comparative study of the articulation of multilevel governance and subnational climate initiatives in the United States and Europe. Arnault’s thesis will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in their Energy, Climate and the Environment book series , for a release date in early 2023.
Arnault’s interest in climate change is linked to his professional experience. He interned for UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program, has also served as a Consultant for the UN Environment Program (UNEP) within the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics. He is currently working with the Energy Centers for two of Europe’s leading think tanks (French Institute of International Relations – Ifri, and the Jacques Delors Institute) where he regularly publishes on related issues.
Arnault has been invited to present his doctoral research at several workshops as part of an EU Jean-Monnet grant from George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs to facilitate transatlantic subnational climate initiatives. He was selected to be a member of the Sciences Po Paris delegation to the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Glasgow, and also participated in the 22nd Transatlantic Policy Symposium hosted by Georgetown University.
Every semester since Spring 2020, Arnault has been teaching his own class for the Collège universitaire at Sciences Po Paris entitled ‘Global Climate Politics: Comparative EU-US perspectives’. The class comprises around 30 students, with total of 24 hours of teaching. The seminar covers the Paris Agreement and the new global climate regime, a comparative analysis of climate politics in the EU and the US, as well as a live simulation of the COP with students being assigned their roles in advance.
Arnault’s second main axis of research focuses on cybersecurity and digital technologies, especially in relation to the energy sector. This is linked to his experience as a research assistant for the French Senate’s Commission on Foreign Affairs and Defense. He was subsequently hired by Ifri and the Jacques Delors Institute to conduct research on cybersecurity and data protection in the energy sector (in parallel to his other research axis – see above).
Palgrave Macmillan recently selected Arnault to be editor-in-chief for the Palgrave Handbook of Cybersecurity and Energy Transitions. The aim of the Handbook, the first of its kind dedicated to the topic of energy and cybersecurity, is to collect research, thinking and practice that captures a range of approaches, disciplines, theories, methodologies and perspectives with a global reach. A broad range of contributing experts have been invited from leading academic institutions, as well as think tanks, NGOs, governments, international organizations and the private sector. This Handbook will contribute to launching the new Palgrave Studies in Energy Transitions (PSET) series; Arnault will be joining the editorial board of this series in early 2023.
Arnault has also been invited to participate in a number of conferences to present his research on cybersecurity in the energy sector. Highlights include ‘New geopolitical landscapes in the energy sector’ at the French War College, as well as the EU Commission’s panel discussion on the Cybersecurity Package with the European Cyber Task Force. More recently, he was invited to speak at the International Forum on Cybersecurity in Lille, as well as the Enedis Forum on Innovation in March 2022. Moreover, Arnault has contributed a book chapter on ‘Cybersecurity and Data Protection in the Power Sector’ in Considine J., Cook D. and Wood G. (eds) A Research Agenda for Energy Politics, to be published by Edward Elgar before the end of 2022.
