Britain urged closer international cooperation to improve energy security on Thursday, telling dozens of other governments and business leaders that they would otherwise be vulnerable to those who were willing to weaponise supplies.
Security of energy supply shot up the agenda of countries around the world after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 drove up global prices and pushed the EU to curb its reliance on Russian fuels.
“Energy security is national security… We will step up and make energy a source, not of vulnerability, but of strength,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said during a two-day energy security meeting in London.
“As long as energy can be weaponised against us our countries and our citizens are vulnerable and exposed,” Britain’s energy minister Ed Miliband said.
They were joined at the meeting organised by the British government and the International Energy Agency by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as well as representatives of some 60 governments and around 50 energy industry leaders.
Von der Leyen said in the next two weeks the European Commission will publish its plan to phase out imports of Russian fossil fuels, which it had pledged to do by 2027 following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
Britain is heavily exposed to fossil fuel price shocks and has some of the highest industrial energy costs, which ministers see as a major barrier to economic growth.
To counter that, the Labour government elected last July plans to largely decarbonise the country’s electricity sector by 2030 and wants to increase renewable power, particularly offshore wind capacity.
“Whilst we won’t be turning off the taps (on oil and gas) we are going all out for our plan for change to make Britain a clean energy superpower to secure home grown energy and set a path for clean power by 2030,” Starmer said at the event.
He also said the decision earlier today by Italian energy group Eni to go forward with its Liverpool Bay carbon capture project would see the company award 2 billion pounds ($2.66 billion) in supply chain contracts and create 2,000 jobs.
Prior to the meeting Britain pledged to invest 300 million pounds in the domestic supply chain for offshore wind projects.
Britain ranks as the world’s second-largest offshore wind market by capacity, after China, but the sector has suffered from high inflation and supply chain bottlenecks.
As part of the funding, government-backed GB Energy, established last year to drive investment in renewables, will invest in offshore wind component manufacturers to increase their production of equipment such as floating offshore platforms and cables.
The funding is part of the 8.3 billion pounds pledged for GB Energy over this parliament, with individual companies able to apply for grants by the end of the year.
($1 = 0.7523 pounds)
(Reporting by Susanna Twidale）
