The appointment of the west London MP will probably be greeted with less disquiet in the sector than that of his predecessor.
While she had made her political name campaigning against windfarms in her rural Northumberland constituency, efforts to tackle climate change are close to Hands’ heart.
In 2018, he resigned from the government to vote against the expansion of Heathrow Airport, unlike then foreign secretary Boris Johnson who famously made a 24-hour trip to Kabul in order to ensure he was out of the UK when it took place.
Hands’ vote was no doubt partially motivated by the need to keep the voters sweet in his Chelsea and Fulham constituency, which is under the airport flightpath.
However, the 55-year-old’s interest in environmental matters extends beyond this constituency single issue.
In 2019, during his spell back on the backbenches following the Heathrow vote, he wrote to then energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng, expressing concern that the UK was not on course to meet the emission reductions targets in its fourth and fifth carbon budgets. Kwarteng is now his boss, having retained his role as secretary of state for business and energy.
During his two spells as minister in the Department for International Trade, which he returned to after the 2019 election, Hands can also point to work he has done on boosting the UK’s offshore wind supply chain.
Born like the prime minister in New York City, Hands is a US/British dual national and graduated from Cambridge University with a first-class honours degree in Modern History in 1989 before working on derivatives trading in the City for eight years.
And he is clearly a political survivor.
The Plymouth Argyle FC fan’s decision to step down from government cast Johnson’s manoeuvres to avoid a vote on Heathrow expansion in an awkward light.
In addition, Hands was an unabashed supporter of remaining in the European Union during the Brexit campaign. Hands’ wife is German and he claims to speak five European languages.
In an interview with Huffpost, Hands revealed that his son had been in tears on the morning following the referendum, worried that his parents would have to split up because of the vote.
After ascending to the Cabinet as chief secretary to the Treasury and effectively then Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s right-hand man, Hands was demoted when Theresa May became prime minister but clung onto a ministerial role at the DIT. Apart from his backbench break in 2018-19, Hands has now been in government for a decade.
Having a seasoned hand in BEIS will be handy as the UK grapples with the closest thing it has had to an energy crisis since the early 1970s.
The main concern for Hands’ predecessors has been how to manage the transition to net zero.
However, unlike them, he also has to contend with spiralling wholesale energy prices and an increasingly fragile supplier market. Both of these factors are likely to mean further pressure on the energy price cap, which is already due to see a steep rise at the end of this month.
Meanwhile the run up to the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow means that Hands cannot afford to take his eye off the decarbonisation ball.
Against the backdrop of rising energy bills, the biggest single item on his to-do list will be the publication of the government’s long-delayed heat & buildings strategy. Originally due out in the spring of last year, the timing of this key document is looking less auspicious as the days go by.
However, Hands will have a very important ally if he fights for extra resources for decarbonised home heating, which experts agree will be required to help home-owners with the upfront additional costs of fitting heat pumps.
Simon Clarke has re-entered the government in Hands’ old job as chief secretary.
The headline item on the Middlesbrough MP’s constituency website is his recent speech in Parliament urging the government to take the lead on tackling change at the COP26 summit. The speech reflects Clarke’s position as a strong advocate for policies to meet net zero within the Conservative Parliamentary party.
As chief secretary, Clarke will oversee October’s comprehensive spending review, which will map out government expenditure for the rest of the current Parliament.
Many have expressed concerns that the Treasury has been applying the brakes to investment in decarbonisation.
Both Clarke and Hands will have a lot on their plates over the next month. However, the sector should be a bit more confident this morning that its concerns are being taken seriously at the government’s top table.