UK and Norway join forces to seize green industrial opportunities

The UK and Norway are set to launch a new Green Industrial Partnership today (16 December) to combine their world-leading capabilities on clean energy, drive economic growth and deliver on the Prime Minister's Plan for Change. 

As one of the UK's most important and longstanding energy partners, with Norway being the single biggest supplier of gas after the UK Continental Shelf, the new agreement – which the two countries have a joint ambition to sign in spring 2025 – will support our aim to secure home-grown energy, protect billpayers, and put us on track to make Britian a clean energy superpower by 2030.

The Prime Minister will visit a cross-border carbon transport and storage facility in Norway to see how the benefits of such projects for the UK will reignite industrial heartlands, create jobs, and turbocharge growth for decades to come.  

It comes days after the Government signed first carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) contracts in the UK. BP, and Norwegian company Equinor are playing a major role in the first projects, called the Northern Endurance Partnership and the Net Zero Teesside. The projects will deliver thousands of skilled jobs to the region, and Net Zero Teesside will provide up to 1 million homes with clean power from 2028.  

In a further example of Norwegian and UK collaboration, today's announcement also comes as pioneering floating offshore windfarm Green Volt announces it has awarded front-end engineering and design contracts to progress the project. 

Based off the Northeast coast of Scotland, it is the first major commercial floating wind development in Europe, and a joint venture between Norwegian Vårgrønn and UK firm Flotation Energy. 

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:  

“This Green Industrial Partnership will allow us to seize the opportunities from a new era of clean energy, driving investment into the UK and boosting jobs both now and in the future. 

“It will harness the UK's unique potential to become a world-leader in carbon capture – from the North Sea to the coastal south – reigniting industrial heartlands and delivering on our Plan for Change.

"Our partnership with Norway will make the UK more energy secure, ensuring we are never again exposed to international energy price spikes and the whims of dictators like Putin.”

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said:

“We need cooperation, knowledge and innovation to better equip us to face the future. The partnership with the UK will be important to facilitate more green jobs both in Norway and the UK, and for advancing the green transition.

“We work closely with the UK in a wide range of areas. We have cooperated in the field of carbon capture and storage for more than 20 years, and further strengthening our cooperation with the UK will help us to cut emissions and create green jobs.

“It is important to show our partners what Norway can bring to the table in our joint efforts to achieve our common goals.”

Alongside the new Green Industrial Partnership, the two countries have committed to initiate work to identify gaps and challenges to the development of our common North Sea as a hub for carbon storage and to develop a bilateral agreement or arrangement on cross-border transport of CO2 under the London Protocol.  

Today's announcement follows urgent action already taken to deliver on the mission since July, including lifting the onshore wind ban, establishing Great British Energy, consenting almost 2 GW of nationally significant solar, delivering a record-breaking renewables auction, and kickstarting carbon capture and hydrogen industries. In October, Britain also became the first industrialised nation to end its 150-year usage of coal to produce power. 

It also comes as Norway's Statkraft broke ground on the Swansea Greener Grid Park in Swansea just days before the Prime Minister's visit, which will use low carbon technology to improve grid stability and reduce the need to use fossil fuel power plants.

The £70m investment is one of a pipeline of similar grid stability schemes to be developed in the UK, and Statkraft has already to date delivered two. The company has already invested £1.4 billion in renewable energy infrastructure in the UK.

Notes to editors:

• Norway is currently leading the world on CCUS, and the UK wants to join it at the forefront, having announced a £21.7 billion funding commitmentin October to cement Britain as one of the most advanced CCUS markets globally and pave the way for further innovation.  
• The UK has enough capacity to store 200 years' worth of emissions. This makes CCUS a revolutionary method in tackling the climate crisis and helping industry to decarbonise.  
• The UK and Norway also hold the majority of the carbon storage potential in the North Sea, so are strategically placed to support Europe to meet its Net Zero ambitions and provide greater energy security.  
• CCUS technology removes CO2 emissions before it reaches the atmosphere and stores it safely beneath the seabed – using tried and tested technology that has been deployed across the globe for over 20 years.  
• With an industry target for at least 50% of the supply chain to be UK-based, there will be significant opportunities to export UK technology abroad in a global sector that is expected to attract £135 billion investment by 2035.