By Jessica Shankleman, Bloomberg
UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband shrugged off criticism from US President Donald Trump over his climate deal with California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The agreement announced earlier this week in London called for the British government and California to expand their cooperation to promote clean energy, fighting climate change and protecting the environment. But Trump said it was “inappropriate” for the UK to make an agreement directly with a US state.
“I obviously don’t agree with that because we were elected to stand up for the British national interest,” Miliband said in an interview at the International Energy Agency ministerial meeting Wednesday.
Critics argue the UK’s green pivot has gone too far, and at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump mocked Europe’s push for more wind generation — describing turbines as “losers.” Democratic governor Newsom, on the other hand, has sought to reassure European allies that Trump — who has derided climate change as a “hoax” — is “temporary.”
The UK will work with anyone to advance British national interests, Miliband said. The nation already has memorandums of understanding with other US states, while also working with the Trump administration to advance nuclear power, he said.
Trump has said he will quit the International Energy Agency unless the organization scales back climate advocacy and focuses on energy security. The Paris-based agency, which was established in response to the 1970s oil crisis, receives roughly $6 million annually, or about 14% of its budget, from the US.
Miliband said he hoped the US doesn’t leave the IEA, while adding he was “very happy” with the work the agency is doing. On Wednesday, the UK contributed £12 million ($16 million) to the IEA’s Clean Energy Transitions program, which helps developing countries and Ukraine to modernize their energy systems.
The IEA ministerial meeting Miliband attended this week ended Thursday without a formal communique, while noting the lack of consensus on climate. The chairman’s summary said “a large majority of ministers stressed the importance of the energy transition to combat climate change.”
While Miliband said the UK and the US are aligned on growing nuclear power, Trump’s position on climate change is in direct contrast to the UK’s Labour government, which has set a goal to virtually eliminate fossil fuels from the electricity mix by 2030.
Trump is trying to halt work on multi-billion dollar offshore wind projects in the US and last week rescinded the “endangerment finding,” a landmark scientific determination underpinning key regulations of planet-warming pollution.
The US president’s energy policy is more closely aligned with Nigel Farage’s poll-leading Reform UK party, which this week unveiled its so-called “shadow cabinet.” Deputy Leader Richard Tice was given Reform’s brief for business, trade and energy. Tice has said he would scrap the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero that was established under the previous Conservative government.
Tice has said he would ditch the UK’s net zero goal, impose taxes on renewable energy and cancel new contracts for offshore wind farms.
Miliband said Reform has underestimated British people’s support for renewable energy.
“He said he wants to declare war on clean energy, or clean energy investors,” Miliband said, referring to Tice. “Well fine. All of those people investing in nuclear, in record breaking offshore wind with all of the jobs that it has, let’s have the argument. Bring it on.”
He reaffirmed his commitment to reducing gas in the power mix to just 5% from over 30% today, and disagreed that there was leeway on the exact goal.
“If we listened to some of the analysts, we’d never set the target and then we’d still be Britain in the slow lane,” he said.
Achieving a clean grid by 2030 means massively scaling up investment in renewable energy and building new grid links to channel wind power from Scotland to more heavily populated parts of England.
It will also require millions of homeowners to switch from gas boilers to heat pumps that run on electricity. The UK is lagging behind other European countries in scaling up heat pumps: while there were record sales in 2025, the rate of growth has slowed from the previous year, according to Heat Pump Association UK.
Miliband has been criticized by Reform and the Conservative Party for pursuing climate policy that pushes up power bills. They argue that his plans to end the use of gas are unrealistic and expensive.
But he has consistently argued that building new renewable energy capacity is cheaper than investing in new gas plants. And from April, energy bills are expected to fall by 7%, after the government agreed to shift some of the costs linked to green power sources onto general taxes.
But Miliband said he was “very, very cautious” about cutting power bills further. His department had considered moving more green levies onto gas bills as part of the Warm Homes Plan. That would have cut the cost of running heat pumps, but Miliband said he ultimately decided it would have been unfair on heavy gas users.
“We will only make those kind of decisions to cut the cost of electricity if we can do so in a way that doesn’t penalize other people,” he said, adding that he had no plans to revisit the decision.
–With assistance from Eamon Akil Farhat.
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