Ministerial role

Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

Responsibilities

The Secretary of State has overall responsibility for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Current role holder

The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP

Ed Miliband was appointed Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero on 5 July 2024. He was elected MP for Doncaster North in May 2005.

Education

Ed holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Political career

Ed previously served as Minister for the Cabinet Office in 2007 and then as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2008 to 2010. In this role, he oversaw the introduction of the world leading Climate Change Act 2008 which made the UK the first country in the world to put climate targets into law.

Ed served in the Shadow Cabinet in a number of positions, including:

  • Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Net Zero, 2021 to 2024
  • Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 2020 to 2021

He was Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2010 to 2015.

Career outside politics

Since 2017, Ed has been the co-host of the current affairs podcast ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’.

In 2003, he was a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Government at Harvard University and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for European Studies.

Personal life

Ed is married and has 2 children.

More about this person

Previous holders of this role

  1. The Rt Hon Claire Coutinho MP

    2023 to 2024

  2. The Rt Hon Grant Shapps

    2023 to 2023