Britain is on track to sign multibillion pound clean energy deals with the UAE “by the summer”, its trade commissioner for the Middle East has revealed.
The new agreements will build on the recent £800 million commitment from Abu Dhabi-owned Mubadala Investment Company to invest in British life sciences over five years, Simon Penney told Arabian Business.
The UK is also expected to sign tech deals with the UAE worth over £1 billion in the coming months, he said.
“Tech is such a wide sector – so it’s too early to say which sectors exactly – but fintech is certainly a priority area for both the UK and the UAE, and one which the countries will be looking at closely,” Penney said.
The upcoming deals will be spearheaded by the newly formed UAE-UK Sovereign Investment Partnership (SIP) and serve as a coordinated investment framework to “grow a future-focused relationship between the two nations, driving economic recovery, jobs and growth”, he said.
“The life sciences commitment is just the start, followed by collaboration on energy transition, infrastructure and technology in a long-term multibillion pound partnership,” Penney (pictured below) revealed.
“The UK Office for Investment and Mubadala are working very hard to finalise these [deals[ but we hope to make announcements on all the sectors, including on energy transition, this summer,” he said.
The new agreements are set to deepen existing UK-UAE trade and investment ties that were worth £32 billion in 2019.
SIP is currently scouting opportunities across clean energy subsectors across the entire UK, Penney said.
Mubadala has been a longstanding partner to the UK for many years with its clean growth subsidiary Masdar, which has several clean energy investments in Britain, including in offshore wind off the coasts of England and Scotland. It has also invested £35 million into Britain’s electronic vehicle charging infrastructure fund.
As the Gulf moves forward with its ambitious green energy programmes, Britain is set to play a major role in the region’s decarbonisation vision.
The UK green technology sector employs more than 750,000 people and much of its innovation is directly linked to Britain’s prestigious network of academia and research institutions.
The Gulf region overall is aiming to slash annual water use by 16 percent, save 400 million barrels of oil, create close to 210,000 jobs and reduce its per capita carbon footprint by 8 percent in 2030, according to IRENA analysis.
According to Wes Schwalje (pictured below), COO of Dubai-based research company Tahseen Consulting, there are several clean energy sectors that the upcoming SIP deals could cover, including energy-efficient heating and cooling, renewable energy, green construction, and wastewater treatment.
According to Schwalje, green energy is set to play a major role in the upcoming post-Brexit GCC–UK trade and investment agreement.
“With the volatility in oil prices accelerating the need to start thinking about the energy transition in the MENA, the UK’s strength and experience in solar and wind energy could find a significant regional market opportunity as long-standing fossil fuel subsidies are shifted to renewable energy,” Schwalje said.
Lord Edward Lister, co-chair of the UAE-UK Business Council, announced on Thursday that the UK has started formal steps for a free-trade agreement with the Gulf countries.
“There is a lot of work under way at the moment – consultation is shortly about to start on it – on new trade arrangements into the Gulf, which will be a free-trade agreement,” he told an online forum. “That’s a major piece of government work.”
The Gulf is Britain’s third-largest export market outside the EU, after the US and China. Total trade in goods and services between the UK and the bloc totalled £44.5bn in 2019.
Follow us on
