16th Dec 2024 13:33
(Alliance News) - Keir Starmer has said that the UK and Norway are "probably two of the best-placed countries in the world" when it comes to carbon capture.
The UK prime minister travelled to Bergen to meet his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Store to mark a new green industrial partnership between the two countries.
Speaking to reporters after signing the joint agreement, the prime minister said: "Carbon capture has a potential for decades and decades of work, and we're probably two of the best-placed countries in the world in relation to this cutting-edge technology, this approach.
"So this is very much important strategically, very much important internationally, but also of huge importance to very many people back at home who will be benefiting from those well-paid skilled jobs which is consistent with my approach of saying we'll have clean power by 2030," he added.
The prime minister visited the Northern Lights CCUS Plant CO2 transport and storage facility with Store before agreeing to the statement, which both leaders will aim to sign in spring 2025.
Starmer said the energy partnership with Norway, which has a border with Russia, would help to boost growth and protect against spikes in international energy prices, such as those that followed President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
The visit comes after the first projects in Britain to take carbon out of the atmosphere were given the go-ahead in the North East, with BP and Norwegian energy firm Equinor confirming investments on Tuesday.
Floating offshore wind farm Green Volt, which is run by Norwegian-based firm Vargronn and Scottish-based company Flotation Energy, has also announced front-end engineering and design contracts to help the project.
It is estimated the plant will deliver power to about one million homes when it starts operating in 2028.
During a bilateral, the British and Norwegian leaders discussed strengthening climate ties as well as defence collaboration in relation to Ukraine.
Before their meeting in Bergen, Store said: "This is possibly the strongest of friendship for Norway, across the North Sea.
"A lot of history and common experience but now we are really strengthened by common issues right ahead of us – security, a more unstable Europe that is going to require defence co-operation and also energy and climate."
Starmer said: "It's really fantastic to be here today. As you rightly say, between our two countries, huge shared history, forged sometimes in difficult circumstances but a very, very strong history, shared thinking, shared values.
"And strategically we're very, very closely bound together of course on issues of defence and security but also on questions of energy."
The agreement also comes as Norway's Statkraft broke ground on the Swansea Greener Grid Park 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 GBP70 million investment is one of a pipeline of similar grid stability schemes to be developed in the UK, and Statkraft has delivered two to date. The company has already invested GBP1.4 billion in renewable energy infrastructure in the UK.
Following the signing, Starmer and Store then flew to Tallinn for a gathering of the Joint Expeditionary Force, JEF, a military coalition of several European countries.
The whistlestop tour will see the prime minister join leaders from the Netherlands, Latvia, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Lithuania to discuss JEF's activities in a changing security landscape.
Announcing its formation in 2014, the UK government described the alliance as "a pool of high-readiness, adaptable forces that are designed to enhance the UK's ability to respond rapidly, anywhere in the world, with like-minded allies."
By Claudia Savage in Bergen, PA Political Staff
Press Association: News
source: PA
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