Ed Miliband | The climate diplomat
As Ed Miliband took charge as the U.K’s new Foreign Secretary, officially the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, on July 20
As Ed Miliband took charge as the U.K’s new Foreign Secretary, officially the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, on July 20, he stated that international development and tackling the climate crisis would be the core priorities of the U.K’s foreign policy under him. “We will work with others on tackling the climate crisis, strengthening our partnerships for international development, and reforming our international institutions so they deliver for all countries, including the world’s poorest people,” Mr. Miliband wrote on X. Data | Ten years and 7 PMs later, did Brexit make a difference? Under the previous Labour government led by Keir Starmer, Mr. Miliband held the position of Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. He had previously been the Energy Secretary under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010. In that short stint, Mr. Miliband strengthened the 2008 Climate Change Act and implemented the U.K. Low Carbon Transition Plan, which was the country’s first economy-wide decarbonisation strategy. After taking on the role again in 2024 under Mr. Starmer, Mr. Miliband oversaw the implementation of various policies that backed the U.K’s commitment to renewable energy. He established the Great British Energy, a publicly owned energy company, to expand and accelerate homegrown clean energy production and deployment.
He also laid out the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, which aims to reduce the U.K’s dependency on volatile fossil fuel markets, especially in light of the Ukraine war, by “harnessing the power of Britain’s natural resources so that we can protect working people from the ravages of the global energy market”. One of his very first moves as Foreign Secretary was to visit Spain and France, the two countries which are now dealing with devastating wildfire disasters. After Mr. Miliband met with Spain’s Foreign Minister, both governments released a joint statement which acknowledged climate change as a global challenge and detailed that these “summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life.” Seasoned politician Miliband is the son of Polish Jewish refugees who came to the U.K. fleeing the Nazis during the Second World War. He started his career in TV journalism before entering politics. He was recruited as a speechwriter by then Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Harriet Harman, in 1993, and climbed through the ranks to work with Gordon Brown. He stood for elections for the first time in 2005, and attained his first Cabinet position under Mr. Brown in 2007.
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