Pressure groups laud new climate change ministry

By Matt Falloon

LONDON (Reuters) - The new minister for energy and climate change must balance efforts to combat global warming against the country's energy security needs, environment and business groups said on Friday.

They cautiously welcomed Prime Minister Gordon Brown's move to create the ministry under one of his staunchest allies.

Ed Miliband, whose brother foreign minister David Miliband who had been mooted as a possible challenger to Brown's leadership, takes on the task of getting business and households to improve energy efficiency and reduce harmful emissions.

He will also face the challenge of improving cooperation on the international stage to tackle climate change, where Britain has insisted that the developed world must take the lead.

"Bringing energy and climate together at last reflects the urgency of the threat we face from climate change," said Greenpeace executive director John Sauven.

"Miliband's new team needs to bring fresh thinking and new ideas to the challenge of climate change. Central to this must be a new, low carbon economy based on green manufacturing and green jobs."

Environmentalists have long accused Labour of talking big on green issues but not producing the policies to match. The creation of a specific ministry to tackle climate change signals that could be about to change, lobbyists said.

MISSING TARGETS