Gone but not forgotten? Maurice Savage/Alamy Stock Photo

Blink and you may have missed it, but the UK’s new cabinet under Prime Minister Theresa May has just lost a department for climate change. On the surface that may look like a bad thing, but other cabinet changes make for more positive news for the UK’s efforts to limit global warming.

It might not seem like the most important question after all the turmoil and trouble caused by the country’s Brexit vote, but climate change remains by far the most important issue facing the UK and the world. It is already affecting people’s lives and the economy, and things are going to get much worse. Much, much worse if we don’t do more.

The UK’s politicians are fond of claiming that the country is leading the world when it comes to climate change. And there are elements of truth in that. In 2008 the UK unilaterally committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions 80 per cent by 2050, and its emissions have been falling fast.


The bad news is that part of the fall in the UK’s emissions is nothing to with government policies.

Instead, it is a result of factors such as the financial crisis and warmer winters (that’s right, global warming). Those reductions that are due to government action are a result of green policies put in place several years ago.

But after the Conservative party won an outright majority in 2015, one green policy after another has been slashed, leading to a sharp fall in green investment.

Way off target

The result: the UK is veering ever further from the course it needs to follow to meet its interim 2020s targets on the way to that 80 per cut reduction by 2050.

Now, on the face of it, things have gotten even worse. The entire Department of Energy and Climate Change has been abolished and merged with a new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. No mention of climate anymore.

This move has been condemned by many as a step in the wrong direction, and perhaps they are right. Some even fear the UK could repeal the law committing it to the 2050 target.

But the fact is that even before the Brexit vote and abolition of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, there was an ever widening gulf between what was being said and done. We had repeated assurances of the commitment to the 2050 target even as policies were pursued that are making reaching this target ever harder, such as backing for fracking and increasing fossil fuel subsidies.

But there are reasons for hope. The head of the new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark, understands the risks climate change poses. In 2009 he gave an entire speech about the economic case for taking action.

Even more encouraging is the fact that the UK’s new chancellor, Phil Hammond, appears to share this views. He gave a speech highlighting the benefits of tackling climate change just last year. “If we take all of this action, we will reduce the cost of energy and the risks of climate change,” he said. “We will create jobs, and enhance our energy security.”

This could be very significant. The roll-back of green policies was driven largely by the previous chancellor, George Osborne. He appears neither to have understood the risks of climate change, nor the potential benefits of taking action.

In 2013, for instance, Osborne said he did not want the UK to lead the way on climate because of the costs to business. Hammond, by contrast, has said the risks of being left behind are greater than those of leading the way.

What is less clear is what the prime minister thinks. Theresa May has said the right things about climate change on the few occasions she has mentioned it, but her voting record is not terribly encouraging.

This is an absolutely critical time. If the world is to have any chance of limiting warming to around 3°C (forget the “safe” 2°C target, it’s too late for that), countries like the UK need to do even more than they’ve said they will. If the UK keeps building more fossil fuel infrastructure, that will be extremely hard to achieve.

But maybe, just maybe, we are about to go from a government under the husky-hugging David Cameron that talked big on climate change but did the opposite in terms of policy, to a government under Theresa May that puts its money where its mouth is. Fingers crossed.

Read more: 14 ways the UK has backtracked on climate pledges this year