Ed Miliband (image by Christian Guthier, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0)

Big news from this morning's Cabinet reshuffle: Gordon Brown has created a new department for climate change and energy, and Ed Miliband has been appointed its head.

This is, potentially, fantastic stuff. Until now, one department has been dealing with climate change and another - the department for business (DBERR) - with energy. This entirely nonsensical division hamstrung any chances of a coherent, low carbon energy policy and kept business and environmental interests at perpetual loggerheads. No prizes for guessing who usually won.

Image by tuexperto_com5, licensed under Creative Commons

Google rules the virtual world but if it ruled the real one, would things be a bit different? Google.org which is the philanthropic arm of Google blogged that it wants to see America weaned off fossil fuels by 2030 for its electricity. Also, Google's own energy efficiency initiatives will be equivalent to shutting down 10-20 coal-fired power stations by 2010 if they are successful.

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Given that we have the best renewable resources in the European Union, the fact that Britain languishes near the bottom of the European renewables league table is pretty humiliating.

On Monday though, the International Energy Agency added insult to injury. Britain's renewables strategy, it said, is 'ineffective' and 'very expensive'. The agency's new report (published here, but you have to pay) ranks Britain 31st out of 35 countries - "including all the major industrial nations such as the US, Germany and China" - in its green energy cost league. And our 'renewables effectiveness', it says, is a paltry three per cent.

First it was Heathrow, then Manchester and now it's time to flashmob London City Airport. Looks like the government still doesn't understand the danger posed to the climate from the plans to expand airports across the country. So join the next flash mob on October 8 at 5.45pm outside Newham Town Hall, East Ham wearing your red t-shirts to tell Newham Council to scrap airport expansion plans.

The flashmob will overlap with the planning meeting that will decide on increasing flights to and from London City Airport by up to 50 per cent. Pressure is mounting on Gordon Brown after the Conservatives boldly called for Heathrow's third runway plans to be scrapped. Come along and show your support for local group Fight the Flights.

Greenpeace volunteers at Newquay airport in March 2007

You might remember that, 18 months ago, we set up ticket exchanges at airports across the country, and called on British Airways to show genuine leadership instead of launching new, unnecessary short haul routes that just add to the huge threat to our climate caused by runaway aviation growth.

I've mentioned before about how I love wandering through the Greenpeace photo library (it's on a big server, so any wandering is purely figurative) - there's always just one more enticing folder to explore. And it's hardly surprising, when our campaign work takes photographers to some stunning locations and places them at the heart of the action. Some have even won major international awards for their work, both with Greenpeace and independently.

While the preservation of civil liberties is an ongoing struggle (the government's ID database plan is one I think is definitely worth challenging), we've still come a long way in the last 100 years.

Back then in the days of empire, Britain might have straddled the world but women had no voting rights and it was only thanks to a group of determined women waging a persistent (and sometimes violent) campaign of direct action that, in 1928, the government finally passed a bill granting equal voting rights to both sexes.

Greenpeace saying Yes to the new high speed rail link to Europe last November © Rose/Greenpeace

We've been hearing likely sounding noises for a while now but today, the Conservatives have formally announced that they'd say no to a third runway at Heathrow, and yes to a high speed rail link between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds instead.

And so I find myself a bit befuddled to be wholeheartedly agreeing with a Tory party spokesperson, Theresa Villiers. She said:

A screengrab from our virtual, climate-friendly town, EfficienCity

With the UK government apparently bending over backwards to stop renewable energy development at the moment, it's refreshing to hear some good news from elsewhere in Europe; the world's first commercial wave power farm has gone live in Portugal.

There are a few interesting stories about Kingsnorth on the web today:

The Independent reveals that the cabinet is split over the Kingsnorth decision: "John Hutton, the Business Secretary, wants to approve the project even if it is not chosen for an experiment in which its carbon emissions would be "captured" and stored under the sea. But his position is strongly opposed by Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, and his predecessor David Miliband, now the foreign secretary."

Across the pond meanwhile, Al Gore has renewed his call for young people to engage in civil disobedience over new coal plants, saying: "If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration".

Last but by no means least, the Kingsnorth Six have made it into the New York Times. Happy reading.