Riyadh: Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Agnes Pannier-Runacher of France signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate in the energy sector, concentrating on clean energy from renewable resources.

In a joint statement published by the Saudi Press Agency, France and Saudi Arabia decided on a roadmap for collaborating on the production of electricity from renewable sources and hydrogen that is built around three pillars: Technology development: Collaboration will advance the production, transportation, and conversion of electricity and hydrogen generated by renewable technology at demand centres;

Business cooperation: The private sector has a crucial role to play, and Saudi-French cooperation welcomes joint efforts between Saudi and French businesses to partner in the entire energy supply chain in order to open up trade and business in hydrogen;

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• Policies and regulations: The roadmap will support the growth of the hydrogen industry by establishing a framework for mutual recognition of certification that takes into account the life cycle assessment of all potential sources' emissions in order to ensure consistency in international trade.

According to the statement, "both countries will work to improve their cooperation in creating and maintaining supply chains for the energy sectors and to enable company cooperation to maximise the utilisation of local resources in both countries, which contributes to achieving flexibility and effectiveness of energy supplies."

A "French-Saudi Task-Force" is to be established, according to the MoU, to carry out the cooperation agreement.

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The UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement's principles, objectives, and goals, including pursuing efforts to keep the temperature increase to 1.5°C, are all outlined in the statement, which states that both countries recognise the significance of moving forward with their implementation.

The statement read, "Combating climate change and promoting secure, dependable, affordable, and sustainable energy supplies are shared strategic priorities of Saudi Arabia and France."

Furthermore, the two nations agree that clean hydrogen is a necessary fuel to achieve their shared goal of fostering sustainable economic growth and reducing the effects of climate change, according to the statement.

Both nations committed to stepping up their cooperation on all facets of energy production, including the use of renewable energy sources, grid interconnection initiatives, and promoting private sector involvement in power sector projects.

"Both countries have agreed to engage in joint efforts to enhance energy efficiency, enhance cooperation in the field of nuclear energy in a peaceful and safe framework, the management of radioactive waste and the nuclear applications, and the development of human capabilities," the statement added.

"Both countries agreed to cooperate on advancing climate technologies and solutions, including carbon capture utilisation and storage for hard-to-abate sectors such as cement, aviation, marine, and petrochemicals, among others," the statement continued.

By utilising its capacity to produce hydrogen and electricity produced from low emission resources at competitive prices, Saudi Arabia aims to become the world's top exporter of these two commodities.

The Kingdom is strategically situated near the biggest global demand centres and has access to the renewable energy, natural gas, and carbon sinks needed to export hydrogen.

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The goal of the French strategy for the development of decarbonized hydrogen is to significantly aid in the decarbonization of transportation and industry. The strategy includes the France 2030 public investment programme, which aims to accelerate investment and creative solutions in French excellence sectors to decarbonize industry and develop renewable energy with the goal of increasing the installed capacity of renewable energy up to 100GW by 2050, with more than 40 GW coming from offshore wind farms.