Utility Week understands that former Greenpeace deputy political director Joss Garman will leave his current role with left-leaning think tank IPPR where he currently serves as associate director for energy, transport and climate change.
Prior to joining IPPR Garman campaigned on behalf of Greenpeace for seven years, during which time he contributed opinion pieces to publications including the Guardian, the Independent and political and environmentalist blogs.
Garman’s appointment is expected to drive forward the policy points outlined by Nandy in her first high profile address as shadow energy leader at the Labour Party conference two weeks ago.
Nandy urged delegates to “change the story the Tories are writing” by driving forward the development of ‘homegrown’ British energy including community schemes and renewables.
Nandy took aim at the current government, saying the Conservatives are risking the UK’s economic security and the security of household budgets by “pulling the rug out” from domestic developers of renewable power and “paying over the odds” for the Hinkley nuclear power project.
“We want secure, affordable, energy, designed, built and owned by the people of our country, drawing on inspiration from around the world,” she said.
She also welcomed the upcoming Paris climate talks as a potentially “transformational signal” to investors and businesses that “the age of polluting energy is over, and that the transition to a new, clean, energy model is inevitable, irreversible, universal”.