U.K. forms new energy department

LONDON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A recent Oxfam report prompted the British government to form a new department.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change will be headed by Ed Miliband. Following a report that suggested the British government's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs were contradictory in their policies on energy and climate change, leaders agreed to form a new department, The Guardian reported.

According to the report, the differing interests of industry, government and the public are like a gathering storm and they must be resolved.

The United Kingdom is under pressure to meet the EU climate-change targets that require the nation to obtain 15 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020. There is also another target expected when the United Kingdom's independent climate-change committee likely recommends the government set a binding target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050.

The new department, supported by the British Wind Energy Association, will help come up with ways to meet those goals.