https://www.desmog.com/2024/07/10/meet-the-labour-governments-new-climate-team/

Meet the Labour Government’s New Climate Team
Introducing the key politicians tasked with delivering the government’s energy transformation plans – and the jobs at the top of their intrays.
By Phoebe Cooke, Adam Barnett and Joey Grostern
onJul 10, 2024 @ 07:29 PDT

Top row (l-r) Steve Reed, Loiuse Haigh, Kerry McCarthy, Ed Miliband, Patrick Vallance, Lord Philip Hunt, Sarah Jones. Bottom row (l-r): Michael Shanks, Chris Stark, Miatta Fahnbulleh, Jonathan Reynolds. Credit: House of Commons official portraits. Design by Adam Barnett.

Labour has wasted no time in appointing its climate team, who are tasked with getting the UK back on track to meet its net zero targets.

As a record 335 new MPs take tours of (and selfies in) their new place of work, we take a look at those responsible for getting the UK to net zero emissions by 2050, and protecting our environment.

At the helm are former Labour leader Ed Miliband, heading up the UK’s net zero and energy security portfolio, and environment and farming secretary Steve Reed.

Chris Stark, the former chief executive of the government’s advisory body, the Climate Change Committee, was on Tuesday appointed the head of Mission Control for Clean Power, in charge of decarbonising the UK’s electricity by 2030.

The scale of the challenge is enormous. Labour plans to overhaul planning laws, and massively expand the grid to transport electricity in pylons across the country from dozens of new solar and wind farms.

Despite ditching its £28 billion climate pledge in February, the party’s attitude to tackling climate change is far more positive and engaged than the Conservatives, whose attacks on net zero appear to have cost the party votes ahead of the election.

Former environment and climate secretaries Therese Coffey and Claire Coutinho are among the 171 Conservative MPs to be leaving Parliament, along with a host of net zero sceptics.

Meanwhile Caroline Lucas, Westminster’s most vocal climate champion, has retired from politics, with four new Green MPs entering the fold.

On the flipside, Nigel Farage’s anti-net zero Reform UK party, now with five MPs in the Commons, has pledged to scrap the UK’s legally binding commitment to a 2050 climate target altogether.

Labour’s path will not be smooth. Ministers face a number of difficult decisions on hydrogen, nuclear and carbon capture and storage. They will also need to make a call on everything from allowing the “carbon neutral” Cumbria coal mine to proceed, and continued subsidies for the wood-fired power station Drax.

With briefs on climate, the environment, transport and science, the following 14 ministers are charged with kicking off Labour’s emission-reductions programme:

[continues with profiles of each member]