Responsibilities
Greg Barker supports the Secretary of State on:
- Green Energy and Energy Security Bill
- The Green Deal
- CERT, CESP & ECO
- Energy efficiency (including its contribution to the EMR White Paper)
- Public sector energy efficiency, including greening DECC
- Carbon budgets
- Carbon reduction commitment
- Fuel poverty, Warm Home Discount and Warm Front
- Promoting interests of energy consumers
- Green Investment Bank
- Green jobs and skills
- Heat, including RHI
- National and international climate change
- Environment Council
- National carbon markets & EU ETS
- Climate science
- Social tariffs
- Climate Change Agreements
- Decentralised energy and small scale renewables (inc cooperative / local ownership and business rates)
- FITs (joint with Charles Hendry)
- Energy innovation, including marine energy (wave and tidal) and geothermal
- Country lead on: North America; South America; India; sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, Southeast Asia
- Country lead on: Far East countries, except China, South Korea, or Japan
Biography
Gregory Barker graduated in History, Economic History & Politics from London University in 1987 and has over ten years experience of working in the City of London. In 1988 after working at the Centre for Policy Studies with David Willetts, he trained as smaller companies analyst and subsequently became a Corporate Finance Director of the Australian owned International Pacific Securities, specializing in cross-border mergers and acquisitions.
In 1997 Gregory Barker became an Associate Partner of the leading financial public relations firm, Brunswick Group Ltd. The following year he was appointed head of International Investor Relations for Sibneft, a major Russian oil company, where he helped lead the company's drive to modernize in the post Soviet economy and open up to Western markets. He returned to Britain in May 2000, to continue as a director of Bartlett Scott Edgar, the recruitment advertising business, of which he helped lead a "management buy-in" in 1998. The company was sold to TMP Worldwide in 2001.
Gregory Barker was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Bexhill and Battle in his native Sussex in June 2001. He served on the House of Commons Environmental Audit select committee between 2001 and 2005. He was appointed to the Opposition Front Bench as a Conservative whip in 2003.
Gregory Barker was appointed Shadow Minister for Climate Change & Environment in December, 2005 and led the passage of the Climate Change Bill through the House of Commons in 2008 and was a key author of the Conservative Party's 'Low Carbon Economy' green paper, launched in January 2009. In October 2008 he was promoted to Shadow Climate Change minister in the new Shadow Department of Energy and Climate Change.