Energy & Environment

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has created a new director general-level role, in an effort to rebalance the department’s workload.

Our sun warms the planet and gives us life, but it also threatens to blitz our IT, communications and power systems. Joshua Chambers investigates the danger of solar storms, and talks to the officials working to counter the risks

America’s fracking revolution has driven down energy prices and given the economy a boost – but could the same happen here? CSW asked the Institute of Directors’ Corin Taylor and energy expert Professor Jim Watson of the University of Sussex to address the question: will fracking be good for the UK?

The delivery of “crucial” infrastructure projects is to be coordinated by "commercial experts" - not civil servants - Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury announced today, when setting out  the government’s £100bn infrastructure plan.

The government must move faster in developing policy measures to help meet its greenhouse gas emission targets, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has warned in a report published today.

The coalition’s Green Investment Bank has been tasked with boosting private investment in the green economy – a high-potential sector constrained by limited finance. Winnie Agbonlahor meets chief executive Shaun Kingsbury.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) spent years engulfed in painful criticism. Mark Grimshaw, who came in as chief executive two years ago determined to turn things around, tells Winnie Agbonlahor how he’s smartened up its act

The Department of Energy and Climate Change is set to become the second Whitehall body to buy in policy development work from outside government, its permanent secretary Stephen Lovegrove has revealed in an interview with CSW.

New DECC chief Stephen Lovegrove has, to his evident relief, missed all the big battles over the direction of our energy policies – but he does face huge challenges in putting those policies into practice. Matt Ross meets him

Scotland narrowly missed its first annual target for carbon emission reductions, falling short by just two per cent due to exceptionally cold winter months, according to the Committee on Climate Change (CCC).

The business department’s permanent secretary Martin Donnelly tells Suzannah Brecknell how his department is working to bring businesses and government together, creating strategies designed to kick start Britain's economic growth

Bronwyn Hill

Permanent Secretary, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Nearly £50m was saved in 2011-12 compared to 2009-10 by cutting the use of fossil fuels and reducing waste and water consumption across Whitehall, the Cabinet Office announced last week.

The new head of the Welsh Civil Service, Derek Jones, will take up his position on 8 October after a four year hiatus from the civil service. He replaces Dame Gillian Morgan, who retired in August. Jones was the director of business and partnerships at Cardiff University, and prior to this role he spent 30 years as a civil servant, including as a senior director.

Moira Wallace, the permanent secretary of the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) resigned last month, days before a critical report by the Commons’ Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECC) was published. The report, which examined her department’s flagship Energy Bill, said that continued rows between DECC and the Treasury have made the policy “unworkable.”

The fitting of small-scale renewable energy generation equipment on the government estate could help cut costs and reduce CO2 emissions. But Nick Schoon finds that nobody is leading on this potentially important agenda

Squeezed between declining rainfall and a growing population, water supply is a growing environmental challenge. Stuart Watson examines how departments can increase their water-efficiency before supplies dry up

Three ground-breaking ‘carbon compacts’ have been signed, bringing together the spending power of departments and private businesses in a bid to push suppliers into cutting carbon emissions.

Suppliers are interested in low-carbon goods and services, but doubts over demand limit investment. Becky Slack examines carbon compacts, which demonstrate that customers really are hungry for eco-friendly supplies

It's the UK’s only way out of the ‘energy trilemma’, says David Handley.

The Canal & River Trust, the new name for British Waterways, has received charitable status from the Charity Commission.

After nearly 22 months, the Commons select committees’ first elected chairs have had plenty of time to size up their Whitehall counterparts. Joshua Chambers asked them how the departments they watch have been performing

Departmental select committee chairs have provided mixed reviews of the departments they scrutinise for a Civil Service World Special Report, which has found that 40 per cent of them are dissatisfied with departments’ responses to their reports.

British Waterways chief Robin Evans has spent years campaigning for the public corporation to become a charitable trust. He tells Matt Ross why our canals are set to thrive outside the illusory security of government ownership