UK prime minister Gordon Brown has created a Department of Energy and Climate Change. The announcement, made on 3 October as part of a wider reorganization of the government, was widely praised by environmentalists, who hope that the department will unify the nation's efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. It will be led by Ed Miliband, who is regarded as a close ally of the prime minister and whose brother, David, is the foreign secretary. Previously, climate change and energy policy in the government were spread across several agencies. "It was a bit of a mess, actually," says Ben Caldecott, head of the environment unit at Policy Exchange, a London-based think tank. Caldecott calls the new climate-change department "a step in the right direction", but says more must be done to unify policy.
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