My father, Gerry Foley, who has died aged 88, was an expert on energy use and conservation, first as a civil engineer and then as a senior research fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London.
His first book, The Energy Question (1976), challenged the prevailing 1970s notion that existing patterns of energy production and consumption could continue indefinitely, and he followed up with studies on coal, oil, gas and nuclear power, as well as one of the first books on global heating, Global Warming: Who Is Taking the Heat? (1991).
Gerry was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, but was brought up in Sligo in the Irish Republic. His father, Ted, had been a member of the IRA during the Irish war of independence before becoming a civil servant in the fledgling Irish Free State, and his mother, Kathleen (nee McIvor), was a housewife.
After attending Summerhill school in Sligo, Gerry studied engineering at University College Cork in the mid-1950s and became a fully qualified civil engineer at Leeds University before taking up his first job with Harris & Sutherland in London. In England he met Lanna MacCarthy, a teacher, and they married in 1961.
At Harris & Sutherland Gerry helped with the structural design of many of the brutalist architectural projects that characterised the period, including the Commonwealth Institute in London and the Essex and Birmingham University buildings.
However, in 1971 he lost his job after objecting to the firm’s decision to work in South Africa; a brave stand given that he had recently become a father of two children.
He then found part-time work teaching at the Architectural Association, within which he established a programme looking at energy use in buildings.
That work brought him into contact with Gerald Leach, the science correspondent of the Observer, with whom he struck up a friendship and professional collaboration. They both joined the IIED in the late 70s – Gerry as a senior research fellow – and co-wrote a number of publications for that body on energy issues, including A Low Energy Strategy for the United Kingdom (1979).
By the mid-80s Gerry had gradually eased himself out of the IIED and into consultancy work, which took him increasingly into the field of international development, particularly in relation to energy production and use. He advised the World Bank, various UN agencies, a handful of international donors and a number of governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
In retirement he became an Alexander Technique trainer.
Lanna died in 2017. He is survived by his children, Katie and me.
