The UK’s energy department is to be merged with the business department.
FT 14th May 2016 read more »
Theresa May’s decision to abolish the department of energy and climate change in Thursday’s ministerial reshuffle has provoked angry criticism from environmental groups and some MPs. “It sends a terrible signal at the worst possible time,” said James Thornton, chief executive of the ClientEarth legal group fighting the government to improve air quality standards. “At a time when the challenge of climate change becomes ever more pressing, the government has scrapped the department devoted to tackling it.” Green Party MEP Keith Taylor said the move “looks like an act of climate sabotage” while Friends of the Earth described it as “shocking”.
FT 14th July 2016 read more »
Campaigners fear that the abolition of DECC, the department of energy and climate change, indicates that climate will take a low priority in Theresa May’s policy agenda. Meanwhile the pro-fracking, pro-nuclear Andrea Leadsom is in charge of environment department Defra. DECC’s energy remit will now be amalgamated with business in a new Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – a choice of name in which the words ‘climate change’ are notably absent. The new Secretary of State at BEIS is to be Greg Clarke, MP for Tunbridge Wells, who was appointed Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government following the 2015 general election. Not all environmentlaists believe that the abolition of DECC is such a disaster for climate and energy policy. Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), sounded an optimistic note on the appointment of the new BEIS Secretary: “Greg Clark is an excellent appointment. He understands climate change, and has written influential papers on the benefits of Britain developing a low-carbon economy. Importantly, he sees that economic growth and tackling climate change are bedfellows not opponents – and he now has the opportunity to align British industry, energy and climate policy in a way that’s never been done before.”
Ecologist 14th July 2016 read more »
Greg Clark is the secretary of state for a newly created Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The department is expected to take over all of the responsibilities of Decc – enacting both energy and climate change policy. It is also expected to take on the most of the duties of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) which has been scrapped as well.
Utility Week 14th July 2016 read more »