Climate change is good news for Oxfordshire company AEA Technology, which is creating up to 100 new jobs to cope with the problem.

Chief executive Andrew McCree said: "Rising international concern about energy security and climate change means that we are operating in a growing market.

"The management team has been strengthened and our aim is now to grow this business through a combination of strong organic growth and acquisitions."

The company, which declared a pre-tax profit of £5.9m for the six months to September, has already recruited 75 new energy and environment consultants.

They include top industry figures such as Dr Garry Felgate, from the Carbon Trust, who will head the energy & environment business, and Tim Curtis, from the Energy Saving Trust.

AEA has opened an office in Bucharest and appointed energy experts to take advantage of European environmental grants to new EU members.

The environment business employs about 700 people at Harwell and the company said most of the new jobs would be based there. The growth follows several years of financial difficulty, with hundreds of redundancies and the resignation of chairman Peter Watson. AEA sold several businesses last year, and underwent a radical financial restructuring.