Green hydrogen and offshore wind: UK and Australia to collaborate on climate and energy

Australia and the UK have struck a new deal agreeing to collaborate on climate change and energy initiatives.

The Climate and Energy Partnership was announced on Thursday after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for the first time on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa.

King Charles said in his opening address to the meeting on Friday that “the existential threat of climate change” was an “urgent challenge” which needed to be tackled.

What does the new partnership mean for both countries?

The deal focuses on collaborating for the “accelerated” development of renewable energy through cooperation on technology such as green hydrogen and offshore wind.

But a joint statement referenced very few specifics of the partnership or the initiatives it may involve.

“We had a productive discussion, including agreeing to negotiate a new climate and energy partnership,” Albanese said.

“This partnership will ensure we maximise the economic potential of the net zero transition, and build on our long-standing cooperation on international climate action and shared commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.”

Starmer added that the UK and Australia share many things in common including a “determination to improve the lives of working people, drive economic growth and ensure cleaner, more affordable energy.”

“This partnership underscores our commitment to powering up the UK with clean energy projects that will benefit communities across the country.”

The lack of detail is unlikely to satisfy Pacific Island leaders who this week called on both countries to do more to tackle climate change which threatens the survival of their nations.

Commonwealth ‘big three’ called out for fossil fuel export emissions

On Thursday, Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo and senior officials from Vanuatu and Fiji backed a new report from the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative which highlights the role Australia, the UK and Canada - the ‘big three’ states - play in global emissions.

It found that these three countries were responsible for 60 per cent of emissions generated by fossil fuel extraction in Commonwealth countries since 1990. The UK, Australia and Canada make up just 6 per cent of the population across the Commonwealth’s 56 nations.

Planned fossil fuel expansion by countries like Australia, Teo said, represented a “death sentence” for his nation.

The Tuvalu Prime Minister singled out Australia as it is now second only to Russia in emissions from its fossil fuel exports with the largest pipeline of coal export projects in the world.

He pointed out the “obvious” discrepancy between the country’s commitment to reach net zero by 2050 and an increase in its fossil fuel exports.

Vanuatu climate envoy Ralph Regenvanu called on Commonwealth nations to “not sacrifice the future of vulnerable nations for short-term gains”. He said they must “stop the expansion of fossil fuels in order to protect what we love and hold dear here in the Pacific”.

The campaign for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, which commits signatories to ending the expansion of fossil fuels, has been led by Vanuatu and Tuvalu. So far 12 other nations, including Fiji, Tonga, Colombia and the host of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Samoa, have joined.