LEGISLATION
New boy on the block
there’s a new government department in town that covers the energy and climate change
portfolios. Hallelujah, say the green lobby. but will DeCC have the clout to achieve the 80%
cuts in carbon emissions it’s set itself? David burrows reports.
"I
f the prime minister “It’s good that energy is being integrated and energy portfolios together?
is committed to cabinet with climate change and that may help push “the key thing about the environment is
government, then the through a coordinated strategy, but there are that it’s a multi-disciplinary area,” Baxter adds.
environment offers the perfect problems,” explains Dr Neil Carter, an expert in “trying to take just one part of it - climate
opportunity for [Gordon] Brown and his new environmental politics at the University of York change - could have consequences for the other
government to demonstrate a new style of and co-author of the foe report. Indeed. Defra, elements. Look what happened with biofuels.”
collective leadership.” an already weak and floundering department, Baxter says the lines of demarcation might
that’s taken from the summary of a report has been denuded further. become a little difficult to identify too. He cites
commissioned by friends of the earth last “In BeRR and Defra, Brown has taken energy from waste, as an example. though
year that analysed the government’s policy two smallish departments and split them into it straddles both energy and climate change,
on climate change. In a nutshell, old style three, yet smaller departments,” adds Martin efW has remained with Defra. the DeCC
departmentalism needs to be replaced by a Baxter, technical director at the Institute of has already made assurances that it would
progressive, genuinely joined up strategic environmental Management and Assessment. continue to work “very closely” with its sister
approach to resolving the challenge of climate “that could mean their ability to punch above, department, and Lord hunt of Kings heath,
change. or even at their weight, is diminished.” as minister for sustainable development and
fast forward a year or so, and it looks Others, like Dr Carter’s co-author in the foe energy innovation, will divide his time between
like the prime minister is moving in the right report, have voiced similar concerns. both departments, giving EfW a fighting
direction. “Although it responds to one of the key chance.
Last month, in a cabinet reshuffle, he things we highlighted, we were thinking more Still, waste is quite intimately linked to
announced a new Department for energy and along the lines of energy being moved from greenhouse gases, which has left the industry a
Climate Change (DeCC). he also made the BeRR to Defra, rather than a new department,”
bold move to bring Peter Mandelson back from says the University of Sussex’s Dr David
his post in the eU. One announcement created Ockwell.
huge debate, the other was roundly applauded: Besides, if the PM was hell-bent on a new
no surprise as to which was which. department, why not put the entire environment
Mandelson’s controversial arrival as
secretary of state for business, enterprise
and regulatory reform however, coincided
with that department losing its huge energy
portfolio to the new DeCC. Similarly, Defra,
the Department for environment, food and
Rural Affairs lost its biggest portfolio - climate
change.
After years of wrangling between the two
departments over the conflicting issues of
energy and climate change, the officials have
been chucked in the ring together.
Is that a recipe for disaster, or is it the
clearest signal yet that the changing climate,
and our impact on it, is recognised as the
challenge for this government?
according to Jonathon Porritt, the pro-nuclear lobby inside eeRR might find their influence curtailed.
10 SuStainable SolutionS December/January 2009
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