Her main research focus is on climate and energy policy, and on how the democratic decision-making procedures can tackle the complex, global problem of climate change. Her research has focused mainly on the level of the EU. She examines EU internal and external energy policy and diplomacy from the perspective of achieving long-term climate policy objectives and ensuring the EU decarbonises its economy by 2050. Beyond the specific empirical analyses, she assesses the potential for concepts like 'policy integration' to improve the quality of policymaking. In 2013, Claire successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled Climate Policy Integration into EU energy policy. In her PhD, she examined the extent to which climate policy integration is evident across three EU energy policies between 2000 and 2010. Using a 2050 benchmark, she found that even the best cases of climate policy integration showed insufficient ambition to achieve long-term and scientifically grounded climate objectives. One general finding of her PhD research is that the nature of the functional interrelations between the energy policy being negotiated and the long-term climate policy objectives may not always be recognised by policymakers in the policy process, rendering the inclusion of climate policy objectives challenging. In addition, Claire found that even as EU climate and energy policy measures become more stringent, the final level of ambition falls short of requirements to combat climate change. 

European environmental, climate and energy governance, Transitioning to sustainability in democratic governance systems, Transition in the European energy, power and buildings sectors, Policy and external relations analysis, Policy coherence and integration, Political analysis, multi-level analysis, Use of expertise in policymaking, Development of research networks