UK Trade Minister: 'Energy comes before climate'

The battle against climate change must not take precedence over the need to guarantee energy security, UK Industry Minister John Hutton was quoted as saying today, remarks that signal an apparent policy change. The government has often said climate change is the biggest threat facing the world.

"Of course we've got to tackle climate change, it's a real and present danger for used (sic)," Hutton told the Daily Telegraph in an interview on the newspaper's website.

"But we've also go to be absolutely clear that our energy policy has got to be figured first and foremost with a view to supplying Britain with affordable and secure energy it needs for the future."

Read more: Upstream Online
Read the interview in full: The Telegraph