Jacob Rees-Mogg, who decried 'climate alarmism', to take on UK energy brief

Source: The Guardian

Jacob Rees-Mogg, who decried ‘climate alarmism’, to take on UK energy brief

Minister expected to add climate change to role after Liz Truss fails to hire dedicated energy minister

Pippa Crerar, Helena Horton and Rowena Mason
Tue 6 Sep 2022 18.25 BST
First published on Tue 6 Sep 2022 17.01 BST

Jacob Rees-Mogg is expected to take on responsibility for energy and climate change after Liz Truss struggled to find a dedicated minister to fill the role amid concerns over his scepticism.

Conservative sources confirmed the controversial minister, a survivor of the Boris Johnson administration, would fulfil the function of the junior minister in addition to his new role of business secretary.

Two Conservative MPs are already understood to have turned down the role of energy minister, while the incumbent Greg Hands has not been told whether he will remain in post, and the Cop26 chair Alok Sharma’s future is unclear.

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Green Tories admitted concerns that Rees-Mogg’s expanded brief signals that Truss, who has supported scrapping green levies and bringing back fracking, will not regard the climate breakdown as an emergency and therefore not treat it as a priority.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/06/jacob-rees-mogg-climate-alarmism-uk-energy-brief