Mandelson v Miliband: The battle for UK climate change policy

The conflict within the cabinet over the future direction of the UK's climate change policy is threatening to escalate in a row over the staffing of the new Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

According to reports in today's Guardian, business secretary Lord Mandelson and energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband are battling over the number of senior civil servants that should be transferred from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) to DECC.

Citing anonymous sources, the paper reports that Miliband is seeking to strengthen DECC's managment of broader economic and infrastructure issues by poaching several of BERR's senior civil servants.

But Mandelson is said to be digging his heels in over the issue, arguing that BERR is already badly over-stretched as it attempts to address the worsening recession and rising unemployment.

The Guardian quotes senior Whitehall officials who claim the row has got nasty, leaving "blood on the carpets" following a series of tense meetings.

"The general view in Whitehall was that there weren't the resources to set up this new ministry in the first place," said one source. "But this was overriden and now the department is in difficulties in getting enough staff."

DECC took 480 civil servants from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and 420 from the energy division of BERR when it was launched last autumn. But Miliband insists that with the department expected to play an increasingly influential role following the publication of the government's first carbon budgets later spring the team needs to be strengthened.

The Treasury is to make the final decision on the staffing of the new department, but observers claim the row provides further evidence of tension between DECC and BERR.

The two departments share overlapping remits and are currently working together on a new green jobs package, but there are also increasingly visible divisions between the two departments, most notably over the controversial plans to build a third runway at Heathrow.

Miliband is said to have reservations over Heathrow expansion and more generally is determined to ensure that climate change considerations play a much greater role in the UK's economic and infrastructure strategy in the future.

However, his stance - embodied in his early decisions to significantly strengthen the climate change bill - has kicked off something of a turf war with BERR, which has traditionally taken a "pro-business" approach to carbon intensive projects and has been lobbying hard for Heathrow expansion to get the go-ahead.