I am a researcher, writer and lecturer, and author of Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption (Pluto Press, 2018). My main area of research is the transition away from fossil fuels, with a focus on how technological, social and economic systems change. I write a blog at peoplenature.org. Bluesky: @simonpirani.bsky.social.
My earlier work as a historian and energy researcher was focused on Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet countries. My book The Russian Revolution in Retreat 1920-24: Soviet workers and the new communist elite (Routledge, 2008) was a study of working-class political history. I published some relevant documents in Communist Dissidents in Early Soviet Russia (Troubadour, 2023). Another book, Change in Putin’s Russia: Power, Money and People (Pluto Press, 2010) was based on my work as a journalist.
I am Honorary Professor in the School of Modern Languages & Cultures at the University of Durham. From 2007 to 2021 I was Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, working on the Natural Gas Research Programme.
