Riyadh, Saudi Arabia–Saudi Arabia and France have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to cooperate in the field of energy, with a focus on renewable resources.
In this connection, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and his French counterpart, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, signed the agreement.
The two countries released a joint statement agreeing on a hydrogen cooperation and electricity produced from renewable resources roadmap focusing on three pillars:
• Technology development: Cooperation will advance hydrogen and electricity produced from renewable technology deployment from production, transportation and conversion at demand centers;
• Business co-operation: the private sector has a critical role to play, Saudi–France cooperation welcomes joint efforts between Saudi and French companies to partner in the entire energy supply chain to unlock business and hydrogen trade;
• Policies and regulation: the roadmap will further promote the development of the hydrogen industry through a mutual recognition of certification framework including emission life cycle assessment from all possible sources necessary for consistency in international trade.
“Both countries will work to enhance their cooperation in developing and sustaining supply chains for the energy sectors and to enable cooperation between companies to maximize the utilization of local resources in both countries, which contributes to achieving flexibility and effectiveness of energy supplies,” the statement said.
The agreement also calls for the creation of a “French-Saudi Task-Force” to carry out the cooperation arrangement.
According to the statement, both countries acknowledge the importance of advancing the implementation of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement in accordance with the principles, objectives and goals defined therein, including pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.
“Addressing climate change and promoting secure, reliable, affordable and sustainable supplies of energy are shared strategic priorities of Saudi Arabia and France,” the statement said.
“Moreover, the two countries recognize that clean hydrogen is an essential fuel to reach the shared objective of promoting a sustainable economic development while mitigating the impact of climate change,” it said.
“Both countries agreed to cooperate on advancing climate technologies and solutions including carbon capture utilization and storage for hard-to-abate sectors such as cement, aviation, marine, and petrochemicals, among others,” the statement added.
The kingdom is looking to become the leading exporter of hydrogen and electricity produced from low emission resources globally, capitalizing on its ability to produce hydrogen and electricity produced from low emission resources at competitive cost.
Saudi Arabia has the necessary resources of renewable energy, natural gas and carbon sinks, to export hydrogen in addition to its strategic location with proximity to major global demand centers.
The French strategy for the development of decarbonized hydrogen aims at having a significant contribution to the decarbonization of industry and transport.
The strategy includes a public investment program, France 2030, aimed at accelerating investment and innovative solutions in sectors of French excellence to decarbonize industry and to develop renewable energy with the goal to increase the renewable power installed capacity up to 100GW by 2050, with more than 40 GW coming from offshore wind farms.