The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown moved the issue of climate change right into the heart of government last week, creating a new Department for Energy and Climate Change.

Ed Milliband, an MP widely regarded as a key young politician to watch, has been appointed as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. "I am looking forward to the responsibility" said Milliband. "The new department reflects the fact that energy policy and climate change are directly linked. My job is to make sure our policy on climate change is fair by ordinary families and our policy on energy is sustainable for future generations."

It is not the first department for climate change. Australia's was appointed last year. What is distinctive is the marriage of energy and climate change, ensuring that they cannot become competing priorities in government. The cabinet will not be able to discuss the two in isolation from each other. Lobbyists will not be able to target government policies on energy without dealing with the threat of global warming.

The UK's track record on climate change has been mixed so far. The government may have proposed the world's first Climate Change Bill, but then rendered its CO2 targets irrelevant by ignoring all emissions from aviation. As a major report from Oxfam, conveniently out this week, shows: "Within the UK, some of the world's best, most-inspiring progress in tackling climate change is already happening... at the same time, a powerful coterie of interests is locked together in the kind of dirty, regressive actions and policies that could undo this progress and derail the UK's emissions targets." The new department should put an end, at least in part, to this kind of policy schizophrenia.

Environmental groups have welcomed the move. "This is, potentially, fantastic stuff" gushed the Greenpeace blog, before putting out a more measured statement later in the day: "Bringing energy and climate together at last reflects the urgency of the threat we face from climate change" said Executive Director John Sauven, before bringing up the issue of coal. "The first test of his credibility will be whether he stops the UK's first new coal fired power station in over thirty years at Kingsnorth in Kent."

Coal will indeed be a defining point. The coal-burning Kingsnorth power station is under review and may be refurbished, the first new coal power station in the UK in decades. Environmental groups are obviously vehemently opposed to coal, with Greenpeace activists controversially scaling the Kingsnorth chimney, as recently reported on Celsias. Ed Milliband will face the first test of his credibility over this decision, not least because his brother David, the former Environment Minister, has repeatedly spoken out against coal.

A second test will be the UK's role in EU renewable targets. Leaked documents recently revealed that the UK was trying to water down targets.

Nevertheless, this represents a big step forward in the politics of climate change. Hopefully it will also set an example to other nations that climate change is serious enough to warrant a permanent seat at the table.