Decc restructure to end image of ‘economists’ and ‘environmentalists’

The Department of Energy and Climate Change will be restructured to end the perception it is split between "cold hearted economists" and "tree-hugging environmentalists", energy secretary Ed Davey announced today.

The department will be split into three directorates respectively covering international policy, markets and infrastructure, and consumers.

Speaking at the Economist UK Energy Summit, Davey said: “We want to abolish the last remaining vestiges of the artificial distinction between our energy work and our climate change work.”

The old structure “reinforces the stereotype of cold-hearted economists on one hand and tree-hugging environmentalists on the other”, he said.

That stereotype was “not really the case” but “we need to make sure that the business of the department comes from integrated policy”, Davey added. “There is no longer any division between emission reducers and energy producers.”

The notification by Davey follows the announcement yesterday that The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) will have its resource budget cut by 8 per cent.

Chancellor George Osborne announced the £83 million cut to the department’s resource budget, which comes into force for 2015/16. He told a packed House of Commons: “We will provide the energy of the future at a price we can afford.”