Miatta Fahnbulleh appointed UK energy secretary amid protests

Miatta Fahnbulleh, a Labour MP for Peckham and former head of the New Economics Foundation, was appointed as the United Kingdom's energy secretary in Prime Minister Andy Burnham's cabinet. She has pledged to achieve full net‑zero emissions by 2030, continuing the Labour government's decarbonisation agenda that began under the Miliband era.

Within her first two days in office, protesters from Fossil Free London gathered outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, wearing firefighter outfits and holding signs urging the new secretary to scrap all new drilling projects. The demonstration reflected public pressure on the government’s fossil‑fuel policies even as it seeks to advance a green‑new‑deal style economic plan.