The Clean Energy MoU, signed by the UK business and energy secretary Grant Shapps and the UAE minister of energy and infrastructure, Suhail Mohammed Al Mazrouei, during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, will further reinforce the robust economic links between the two countries developed in the nations’ 2018 MoU on Cooperation in the Field of Energy, according to a press release by the UK government.

The MoU has been expanded to encompass the full scope of bilateral co-operation, including the new low carbon super fuel hydrogen. This builds on ADNOC—the UAE’s largest energy company—taking a 25 per cent stake in the design stage of BP’s blue hydrogen project, H2Teesside, last year. It also acknowledges the progress the UAE has made so far on climate action, their ambition for clean energy investment, and their call for finding energy solutions with like-minded partners.

The UK and the UAE have signed the Clean Energy MoU to confirm the joint ambitions of both countries regarding clean energy investment and cooperation. The MoU will help facilitate the sharing of technical knowledge, advice, skills, and expertise, opening up new avenues for cooperation on energy and climate, while boosting investment in the UK.

Business and energy secretary Grant Shapps said: “The UK is immensely proud of its longstanding relationship with the UAE. Today’s latest agreements provide further evidence that not only are we are strengthening our energy security and lowering bills for consumers in the long term, we are unlocking huge opportunities for investment in British expertise and jobs in the process.

“International cooperation on energy and climate with close partners like the UAE is vital and as they take centre stage as hosts of COP28 later this year, they will have our full support every step of the way.”

The MoU represents a strengthening of collaboration between the UK and the UAE and the Partnership for the Future (P4F), which was signed during President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s visit to the UK in September 2021. The P4F is complemented by the existing Sovereign Investment Partnership (SIP), agreed in March 2021 to serve as a coordinated investment framework to grow a future-focused relationship between the two nations, driving economic recovery, jobs, and growth.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)