South Korea and the UK have made a joint declaration stating their agreement on the need for energy transition from fossil fuels to low carbon power sources, and the prospects for South Korea’s participation in energy exchanges and the UK’s new nuclear power, offshore wind power, hydrogen and clean energy projects.

Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Chang-yang met with Grant Shapps, the UK’s Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero at the Lotte Hotel Seoul to discuss the collaboration. The Korean and UK delegations discussed offshore wind power, hydrogen and other areas of clean energy cooperation as well as measures for nuclear energy cooperation, including design, construction, main equipment production, decommissioning, nuclear fuel and small modular reactors (SMRs), and the two countries agreed to accelerate discussions regarding Korea’s participation in UK’s new nuclear power plant project.

Lee remarked that “Korea is making a broad range of policy efforts aimed at energy transition in shifting towards carbon neutrality on the basis of stable power supply,” and stated that Korea “plans to expand renewable energy to appropriate and attainable levels while utilising nuclear energy, a zero carbon power source, on the premise of securing stability.”

Lee expressed his hope for “expansion of the two countries’ scope of collaboration” by combining Korea’s manufacturing capacity and UK’s offshore wind power know-how. With regard to hydrogen cooperation, he said that he is looking forward to organic cooperation on hydrogen, stating that “Korea has technological prowess in hydrogen applications, having harnessed it to distribute first-rate hydrogen cars,” and that “the UK retains leading technological capabilities in solid polymer electrolysis (SPE) and hydrogen production.”

Share Story: