UK and UAE Agree to Boost Energy Security and Unlock Investment

The UK and UAE governments have signed an MoU which will help facilitate the sharing of technical knowledge, advice, skills and expertise, opening up new avenues for cooperation on energy and climate, while boosting jobs and investment in the UK.

The Clean Energy MoU was signed by the UK Business and Energy Secretary Grant Shapps and the UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, H.E. Suhail Mohammed Al Mazrouei, during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

It will further reinforce the robust economic links between the 2 countries developed in the nations’ 2018 MoU on Cooperation in the Field of Energy.

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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% 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.

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’re 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."

Memorandum of Understanding

The MoU represents a strengthening of collaboration between the UK and the UAE and follows hot on the heels of the Partnership for the Future (P4F), which was signed during H.H. President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s visit to UK in September 2021

P4F provided a clear statement of UK and UAE's collective energy ambitions.

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.

Read More: UAE-UK Partnership Can Unlock Potential of Clean Hydrogen: Report