UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has split the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) up and created a dedicated energy security and net zero function.
The new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is being led by Grant Shapps and comes following promises made by Sunak to create a new dedicated energy department during his campaign for Conservative Party leadership against Liz Truss.
A Government statement says that the new department has been tasked with “securing our long-term energy supply, bringing down bills and halving inflation. The move recognises the significant impact rising prices have had on households across the country as a result of Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine, and the need to secure more energy from domestic nuclear and renewable sources as we seize the opportunities of net zero.”
Although it isn’t known what the department will do at this stage, it is expected Sunak will heed the warnings made by Chris Skidmore MP through his Net Zero Review, which concluded that the UK Government’s current approach is neither sufficient to deliver steep enough emissions cuts not laid out well to reap and share the social and economic benefits of the transition. The UK Government is legally required to update its flagship Net Zero Strategy by the end of March.
The Government has stated that the change is intended to join up work on “backing British businesses at home and abroad”.
The changes mirror the departmental hierarchy pre-Theresa May when the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) existed. They also mirror the Labour Party’s setup, which has separate Shadow Ministers for business and industrial strategy (Jonathan Reynolds) and climate and net zero (Ed Miliband).
The changes come ahead of this year’s budget, due to be delivered in mid-March by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Hunt has notably stated that the budget will include measures to encourage innovation in cleantech and to address looming green skills gaps.
