New United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision last week to fold the nation’s Department of Energy and Climate Change into the newly formed Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, is not entirely bad news, according to an editorial Monday by Matthew Billson, program director for the University of Sheffield’s Energy2050 program. “A focus on business is necessary if the UK is going to continue to reduce its emissions: the switch from coal to low carbon sources means electricity supply is doing its bit, but other sectors – notably heat and transport – need to up their game,” the editorial, published in The Conversation, says.
Billson also said the new department’s industrial focus could breathe life into the nation’s faltering carbon capture and storage efforts. “Steady energy policies coupled with a more interventionist approach to infrastructure and technology investment could reap rewards. … It could mean CCS is dusted off and new transport and storage infrastructure such as pipelines and injection wells are built,” the editorial says.
May became prime minister on July 13 after David Cameron stepped down in the wake of the United Kingdom’s June 23 referendum vote to exit the European Union. The “Brexit” threw world markets into turmoil and raised questions about what role EU policies will have in the U.K. after the transition, which will take at least two years to complete.
In the days since her appointment, May has made a number of changes to her Cabinet, naming former Secretary of State for the Department for Communities and Local Government Greg Clark as the new secretary of state for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Amber Rudd, former secretary for the DECC, has been appointed secretary of state for the Home Department; and Andrea Leadsom, who held the position of minister of state for energy at DECC, will now serve as secretary of state for environment, food, and rural affairs.
