A new Green Industrial Partnership with Norway has been agreed in Oslo with Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Norwegian counterparts Ministers Terje Aasland and Cecilie Myrseth.

The partnership enhances the UK and Norway’s longstanding collaboration on energy and is one of the key deliverables of the countries’ over-arching Strategic Partnership on key areas that support the development of renewables.

These areas include offshore wind and grid development, collaboration on the protection of UK and Norwegian offshore infrastructure and reducing barriers to develop a North Sea hub for the cross-border storage of carbon dioxide.

Norway’s Minister of Energy Terje Aasland said: “Norway and the United Kingdom have a unique relationship in the energy sector, characterised by innovation and close cooperation across the North Sea. I am very pleased that today we are establishing a forward-looking partnership to promote the green transition and further strengthen the collaboration between our two countries.”

It is estimated that the UK’s seas have the potential to store up to 78 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, which this partnership could help to unlock to support jobs and reduce emissions across Europe.

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