Carbon-cutting target was approved by both houses as new BEIS minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe insists climate strategy will be at the heart of new department’s remit
Category: News
Nick Hurd, Margot James and Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe will join new BEIS ministry headed by Greg Clark .
Hopes the newly formed Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will prioritise action to tackle climate change and expand the green economy were given a boost over the weekend, as a number of leading ‘green Tories’ were appointed to key positions within Theresa May’s government.
Conservative MPs Nick Hurd and Margot James and House of Lords peer Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe were confirmed as junior ministers at the newly created department over the weekend, where they will join new Business Secretary Greg Clark.
Like Clark, who served as shadow energy and climate change secretary prior to 2010 and has been a long-standing advocate of climate action, the new ministers bring a variety environmental, climate change and green business experience to the new department.
Nick Hurd, the MP for Ruislip Northwood and Pinner, is a supporter of the Conservative Environment Network think tank, and was chairman of the climate change sub-group of the Quality of Life policy review commission between 2006 and 2008. He has also served on the Environmental Audit committee and more recently served as parliamentary under-secretary of state for international development between November 2015 and July 2016, and as civil society minister for four years during the coalition government.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe, meanwhile, was promoted on Sunday from her previous role as parliamentary under-secretary for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), to minister of the revamped business and energy department. Neville-Rolfe was appointed as a life peer of the House of Lords in 2013 after around 16 years working for Tesco, where she served on the board as executive director of corporate and legal affairs for seven years. She also formerly worked as a civil servant at the ministry for agriculture, fisheries and food for 19 years.
Margot James has in turn taken up the under-secretary of state role at the newly formed department. James was first elected as an MP for Stourbridge in 2010, and has previously sat on the BIS select committee and the Committee on Arms Export Controls.
She also created and chaired an all-party parliamentary group for trade and investment in a bid to boost dialogue on trade issues between businesses, trade organisations and politicians, and since 2015 served as assistant government whip, with responsibility for education and equalities. In addition, she previously worked to promote the Green Deal energy efficiency scheme and campaigned to reform the climate change levy.
Source: Business Green
Category: News
Greg Clark has been appointed secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy – a newly created role which gives a strong indication that the incoming prime minister Theresa May has merged some of the responsibilities of DECC with the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) department.
And, in a statement on his new appointment this afternoon, Clark suggested he would be taking on the climate change brief as well as looking after energy and business.
“I am thrilled to have been appointed to lead this new department charged with delivering a comprehensive industrial strategy, leading government’s relationship with business, furthering our world-class science base, delivering affordable, clean energy and tackling climate change,” he said.
First elected to Parliament in 2005 as the MP for Tunbridge Wells, Clark has held a number of front bench positions, both in government and the shadow cabinet.
He served as shadow secretary of state for energy and climate change from 2008 to 2010, and also worked in the coalition government as financial secretary to the Treasury, minister of state for cities and constitution and minister of state for universities, science and cities.
As communities secretary at DCLG for the past year, Clark had the final say over planning decisions, including gas developer Cuadrilla’s fracking application for a site in Lancashire, over which Clark had been expected to make a final decision.
Meanwhile, Amber Rudd, who previously held the post of secretary of state for energy and climate change, was promoted earlier today to head up the Home Office.
Responding to Clark’s appointment, Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), called Greg Clark an “excellent appointment”.
“He understands climate change, and has written influential papers on the benefits of Britain developing a low-carbon economy,” said Black in a statement. “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 has never been done before.”
Green advocates gave mixed responses to the news that energy policy will be moved to the business department, with some expressing concern it could bode ill for the importance put on climate change.
Source: Business Green
Category: News
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