Campaigners delighted that the Bill's been increased

We're rather belated in reporting this on our blog, but for the last week or so we've been meaning to write about two big climate change announcements.

On the back of the recent Cabinet re-shuffle, the UK Government three weeks ago created a new department - the Department for Energy and Climate Change.

Previously energy and climate change had been silo-ed in separate departments, often with one confusingly doing things to contradict the actions of the other (see our recent publication, The Forecast for Tomorrow, for more on that).

Under the old set up we had the department that dealt with climate change - the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs - often championing ambitious targets to tackle climate change. While on the other hand the department that housed energy policy - known as the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) - was bafflingly threatening to give the go ahead to a new generation of coal-fired power stations.

Confused? We certainly were. So the prospect of a new department to align the UK climate and energy policy was something to get excited about.

But that was just for starters.

Ed Miliband, the man appointed minister in charge of the new department, barely two weeks into the job announced changes in the UK Climate Bill which include legally binding targets to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, compared to 1990 figures.

This is what Oxfam and many other organisations such as Christian Aid, Tearfund and the World Development Movement - all of whom are extremely concerned about the impact of climate change on poor people - have been calling for. And at this point we'd moved from excited to borderline ecstatic.

But wait. There's more...

A few days later and Government then decided they were going to include emissions from ships and planes too - previously the Bill excluded the UK's share of international aviation and shipping emissions.

Result! And by this stage we were teetering on giddiness. As far as campaign victories go this is very, very good news.

Mr Miliband deserves kudos for demonstrating such leadership so early on in his new role, but more importantly it's you that deserves the real praise.

The changes in the Bill happened because of public pressure. The demonstrations you went on, the action cards you filled in, the emails you sent to Government, and the letters you wrote to your MP - they've all added up to something brilliant.