Many environmentalists have expressed concern over the appointment of Owen Paterson in yesterday’s cabinet reshuffle. The North Shropshire Tory MP, who took up the position from Caroline Spelman following a stint as Northern Ireland Secretary, is considered to be on the right of the Tory party and has previously supported issues which could be considered at odds with the role of Environment Minister.

In the past, Paterson has expressed support for airport expansions and shale gas ‘fracking,’ a deeply controversial method of fossil energy extraction, in which companies are allowed to pump undisclosed chemical mixtures into the ground to release trapped natural gas.  

The minister is a vehement supporter of the government’s controversial plans to conduct badger culling as part of its Bovine TB eradication policy, which has been the subject of much media attention as well as legal challenges and appeals.

He also called for the end of energy subsidies in May and has opposed renewable energy projects. Environmentalists have expressed fears that the UK could fail its renewable energy and emissions targets unless the new minister’s views are tempered in office.

Green MEP Caroline Lucas yesterday registered her dissatisfaction in a tweet following Mr Paterson’s appointment and a spokesperson for Friends of the Earth told sustainable business news source Edie that the organisation is concerned about Paterson’s reported willingness to fast track fracking, but offered the caveat that “Politicians say all sorts of things when they are not in office.”

In May, Mr Paterson became the most senior politician to voice opposition to plans to legalise marriage between people of the same sex or gender identity. Nevertheless, James Cooper, spokesperson for the Woodland Trust, welcomed Mr Paterson’s appointment yesterday, as the former Northern Ireland minister lists ‘trees’ amongst his interests.

In the wake of yesterday’s reshuffle, the Guardian’s Environmental Editor Damian Carrington  posited that Paterson’s appointment, along with a number of changes in the Department of Transport, may be a symptom of the Tories’ current erosion of its early environmental pretensions in favour of a shift towards ‘growth at any cost.’ He said, “[Spelman] spoke convincingly, if quietly, about the value of the nation's natural environment and the false economy of despoiling it in the desperate search for a quick fix to the recession” but expressed disquiet at the fact that “The responsibility for guarding the nation's natural capital now lies in Paterson's hands.”

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