Climate scientists have expressed horror at Jacob Rees-Mogg’s appointment as the secretary of state overseeing UK energy policy, warning that it will make it even harder to turn academic research into urgently needed policies.
Mr Rees-Mogg, who as business secretary will also oversee the distribution of £15 billion a year in research spending, has repeatedly questioned the scientific consensus behind climate change, claiming that “climate alarmism” should be blamed for high energy prices and that it was unrealistic for scientists to assert that they could model global warming accurately when meteorologists struggled to correctly predict the weather. He supports continuing fossil fuel extraction in the North Sea.
