Labour has appointed Chris Stark, the former head of the UK’s climate watchdog and one of the country’s foremost climate experts to lead a “mission control centre” on clean energy.
Stark will head a Covid vaccine-style taskforce aimed at delivering clean and cheaper power by 2030.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said that the centre would work with energy companies and regulators and would be the first of its kind in Whitehall, following Keir Starmer’s plan for mission-driven government.
According to this model, ministers will focus on tackling five of the biggest challenges facing the country, one of which is clean energy.
Stark said: “Tackling the climate crisis and accelerating the transition to clean power is the country’s biggest challenge, and its greatest opportunity. By taking action now, we can put the UK at the forefront of the global race to net zero.”
Ed Miliband, who is the energy secretary, said: “Years of underinvestment has left our country suffering energy insecurity, with working people paying the price through their energy bills and a cost-of-living crisis. That cannot happen again.
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“This new mission control centre, benefiting from the expertise and experience of Chris Stark’s leadership and bringing together the brightest and best in the national interest, will have a laser-like focus on delivering our mission of clean power by 2030.”
Stark was head of the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) for six years until January. He was director of energy and climate change in the Scottish government between 2016 and 2018.
During his tenure the CCC recommended a UK net zero target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which is now in law.
Stark won praise for his management of the CCC at a difficult point, when the government was briefing against many of the statutory watchdogs. Some on the right of the Conservative party would have liked to dismantle the 2008 Climate Change Act, under which the committee was set up with the mandate to advise on meeting the five-yearly carbon budgets.
Throughout his six years as chief, he maintained his steady insistence on telling the government truths it did not want to hear – on how far off-track the UK was straying from its climate goals, and how much more it would cost to delay action than to take it now.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
