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The Independent:
The decision to
abolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change has been
variously condemned as “plain stupid”, “deeply worrying” and
“terrible” by politicians, campaigners and experts.
One of Theresa May’s
first acts as Prime Minister was to move responsibility for climate
change to a new Department for Business, Energy & Industrial
Strategy.
Only on Monday,
Government advisers had warned of the need to take urgent action to
prepare the UK for floods, droughts, heatwaves and food shortages
caused by climate change.
The news came after
the appointment of Andrea Leadsom – who revealed her first question
to officials when she became Energy Minister last year was “Is
climate change real? – was appointed as the new Environment
Secretary.
And, after former
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd announced in November
that Britain was going to “close coal” by 2025, Ms Leadsom later
asked the coal industry to help define what this actually meant.
Former Labour leader
Ed Miliband tweeted: “DECC abolition just plain stupid. Climate not
even mentioned in new deptartment title. Matters because departments
shape priorities, shape outcomes.”
Greenpeace said it
was concerned that the new Government did not view climate change as
a serious threat..
John Sauven, the
campaign group's executive director, said: “The voting record and
affiliation with climate sceptics of key cabinet appointees are
deeply worrying.
"They show a
lack of understanding posed by climate change to the UK and the
world. If we are to continue to have a key global role in
environmental action, we need urgent reassurance from the new
government that the hard won progress on climate and renewables
targets, air pollution and the protection of wildlife will not be
sidelined or abandoned in the Brexit negotiations.”
Amber Rudd
challenges Boris Johnson to state that he's not a climate change
denier
31 scientific bodies
tell US Congress: Climate change is real
Green Party MP
Caroline Lucas described the decision as “deeply worrying”.
“Climate change is
the biggest challenge we face, and it must not be an afterthought for
the Government,” she said.
“Dealing with
climate change requires a dedicated Minister at the Cabinet table. To
throw it into the basement of another Whitehall department, looks
like a serious backwards step.”
She said she would
work with any Minister “willing to take climate change seriously”,
but added she would seek to hold Government to account for “any
backpeddling on our climate change commitments”.
Craig Bennett, chief
executive of Friends of the Earth, pointed out that a major report
into the effects of climate change on Britain had made clear that it
was already happening.
“This is shocking
news. Less than a day into the job and it appears that the new Prime
Minister has already downgraded action to tackle climate change, one
of the biggest threats we face,” he said.
“This week the
Government’s own advisors warned of ever growing risks to our
businesses, homes and food if we don’t do more to cut fossil fuel
pollution.
“If Theresa May
supports strong action on climate change, as she’s previously said,
it’s essential that this is made a top priority for the new
business and energy department and across government.”
And Stephen Devlin,
an environmental economist at the New Economics Foundation (NEF),
said the department’s abolition was “a terrible move by our new
Prime Minister”.
He said it appeared
to signal “a troubling de-prioritisation of climate change by this
government”.
“Tackling climate
change is an era-defining challenge that must direct and determine
what industries we develop, what transport infrastructure we
construct, how we manage our land and what our diets look like. It
requires a central co-ordinated strategy; if we leave it to the
afterthoughts of other departments we will fail,” he said.
“This reshuffle
risks dropping climate change from the policy agenda altogether – a
staggering act of negligence for which we will all pay the price.”
He called on Ms May
to reaffirm the Government’s commitment to the 2008 Climate Change
Act, which he described as a “world-leading piece of legislation”.
This commits the UK
to an 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and
is “one of few remaining silver linings in UK environmental
policy”, Mr Devlin said.
A letter by DECC’s
permanent secretary, Alex Chisholm, to staff in his department, which
was leaked to Civil Service World, confirmed that its
responsibilities were being transferred to the new Department for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, under its new Secretary,
Greg Clark.
"We can make
sure we have the 21st century infrastructure we need. Business will
have a strong champion in government," he wrote.
"Energy and
climate change will continue in a single department ensuring
efficient paths to carbon reduction.”
A spokesman for DECC
told The Independent: "Nothing is changing. The commitment [to
dealing with climate change] is still there."
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Team
Theresa gets frosty European reception
EU
politicians react with shock and name-calling to the provocative new
British power structure.
By MAÏA DE LA
BAUME, TARA PALMERI AND NICHOLAS VINOCUR 7/14/16, 7:16 PM CET
Shock, anxiety and
name-calling aren’t typical reactions to the incoming government of
a respected world power, but they describe a good part of Europe’s
welcome for British Prime Minister Theresa May’s new cabinet —
and especially her surprise pick for foreign secretary, Boris
Johnson.
While many
politicians offered polite words of congratulation for May, they
weren’t shy about taking aim at others in her inner circle, mainly
Euroskeptic politicians who drove the Brexit effort. That Johnson —
a man who recently referred to Turkey’s president as a “wankerer”
— would be Britain’s chief emissary to the world drew much of the
fire.
French Foreign
Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, in a radio interview Thursday morning,
called Johnson a liar who misled British voters and who would “have
his back against the wall” as the U.K. tried to negotiate its
future relationship with Europe. Later Thursday, in a university
speech, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier referred to
Johnson as one of several “irresponsible” politicians who “lured
the country into a Brexit.”
Both men,
representing Europe’s biggest powers, will sit across the
negotiating table from Johnson in just a few days, when foreign
ministers meet in Brussels for what will be the Tory Brexit
champion’s EU debut.
“When I saw
Johnson’s appointment on my phone, I didn’t know whether it was
British humor or reality” — Philippe Juvin, French MEP
Other European
politicians expressed similar alarm at the news.
“When I saw
Johnson’s appointment on my phone,” said Philippe Juvin, a French
MEP from the center-right European People’s Party, “I didn’t
know whether it was British humor or reality.”
Even before Johnson
was announced, he was the target of criticism from European
Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans, who made a clear
but indirect reference to Johnson in a Facebook post. Timmermans
criticized Brexit “campaigners” who compared the EU to Nazi
Germany, as Johnson had done in a newspaper interview in May. “Why
did you find it necessary to bring the Nazis into this campaign?”
Timmermans asked.
There was also
criticism from some about the larger makeup of May’s cabinet, which
included prominent Euroskeptic David Davis in a new role as
“secretary of state for exiting the EU,” a title that amounts to
a diplomatic provocation of sorts; and Liam Fox as secretary of state
for international trade. Both men will face the daunting task of
trying to negotiate new trade and economic relationships with
countries across Europe and around the world.
“It is interesting
to see how many Brexiteers are in key positions,” said Tomas
Prouza, the Czech European affairs minister. “I assume it is a
warning for us that the negotiations will be tough and long.”
‘Awkward’
In Brussels, the
main heads of the EU institutions gave cordial but terse
congratulations to May, and largely withheld comment about her
cabinet picks.
But European
Parliament President Martin Schulz was not shy about criticizing the
new British government, telling German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung
on Thursday that the composition of the cabinet “shows that the
focus is less on the future of the country but more about satisfying
the internal cohesion of the Tory party.”
Schulz said the
“United Kingdom has to break this dangerously vicious cycle which
has direct impacts on the rest of Europe.”
Gianni Pittella,
leader of the Parliament’s Socialist bloc, said: “Apart from the
fact that the U.K has elected a woman, the entire government is
orientated on a pro-Brexit line, and a line that contradicts what May
stood for before.”
But EU diplomats and
experts reserved their strongest criticism for Johnson, saying that
as the architect of the Brexit campaign and purveyor of such blunt
public statements as comparing Hillary Clinton to “a sadistic nurse
in a mental hospital,” he will have a hard time being taken
seriously.
A consolation for
French leaders is that, as foreign secretary, Johnson will not be
directly responsible for negotiating the terms of Britain’s
withdrawal from the EU.
“It will be
awkward, because he’s not diplomatic and the diplomats are upset
about Brexit,” a senior EU diplomat said. “For the political
situation in the U.K. it was logical to choose Boris. Luckily it’s
the heads of states who will do the heavy lifting in the
negotiations.”
Another senior EU
diplomat who will be at Johnson’s first Foreign Affairs Council
meeting in Brussels on Monday said: “It will be a challenge, there
will be many ministers who will question his credentials.”
Others were a little
less harsh in their criticism of Johnson, and paid tribute to May for
having formed a government earlier than expected and created the new
role for Davis.
“I think there
will be a very limited role for Boris Johnson in the EU,” said
Prouza. “The Brexit negotiation will be undoubtedly run directly
out of Number 10 with Mr. Davis the point man for the negotiations.
So I expect Mr. Johnson to focus more on topics outside the EU.”
Gallic groan
Ayrault wasn’t
alone in France’s ruling Socialist elite in greeting the
appointment of Johnson with scorn.
Known as a
consummate French-basher, described by Reuters France as “king of
the gaffe,” the former London mayor has repeatedly irritated
Parisian society with his quips at their expense, notably when he
compared the presidency of François Hollande to a hold-up of the
rich by “sans culottes” — French commoners who led the 1789
Revolution.
Elisabeth Guigou,
the Socialist chief of the National Assembly’s committee on foreign
affairs, recently told POLITICO that Johnson was a man who “surfed
on the wave” of anti-EU sentiment in order to boost his own career,
only to shy away from the responsibility of dealing with Brexit by
saying there was no need to quickly make official Britain’s divorce
with the EU.
“This behavior
does not surprise me from him at all,” said Guigou.
A consolation for
French leaders is that, as foreign secretary, Johnson will not be
directly responsible for negotiating the terms of Britain’s
withdrawal from the EU.
“Boris Johnson
will probably not have a major influence on future negotiations with
the European Union,” wrote Le Figaro, a right-leaning daily.
And at least one
European political veteran said Johnson would be a welcome addition
to the EU diplomatic scene:
“I think it will
bring color to Europe,” said Elmar Brok, a German MEP who chairs
the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
Meanwhile, another
key U.K. ally was keeping a calmer head about the appointment of
Johnson.
Johnson spoke
Thursday with his American counterpart, U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry, who will also be in Brussels next week to meet with EU foreign
ministers. According to a U.S. State Department readout of the
conversation, Kerry congratulated Johnson and told him he hoped for a
“sensible and measured approach” to Brexit.
Authors:
Maïa de La Baume ,
Tara Palmeri and Nicholas Vinocur
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