France has also been active. In July 2022, the UAE and France inked a comprehensive strategic energy partnership, reinforced by a 2023 UAE-France-India tripartite cooperation initiative focused on the energy transition. Moreover, Paris signed a memorandum of understanding with Riyadh to work together on nuclear energy; hydrogen; electricity interco

hydrogen produced using natural gas and storing carbon emissions – and its derivative “blue ammonia”. This deal includes an aim of quickly replacing this with the cleaner “green hydrogen”. In Saudi Arabia, the German foreign office has opened a Riyadh-based hydrogen diplomacy office. Its aim is to implement a 2021 memorandum of understand

In September 2022, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, visited Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Two months later, Berlin signed a 15-year deal to buy 2m tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar, with deliveries starting from 2026. That same year, Qatar and Germany signed an energy partnership with working groups on hydrogen, LNG, and energ

As well as being top oil and gas producers, the Gulf monarchies are potential sources of green energy for the EU and likely frontrunners in the global energy transition. Yet, as I set out in a paper for ECFR in 2021, the EU initially underwhelmed in its engagement with these states as part of the European Green Deal. GCC capitals, in turn, were bro

This policy brief examines some of these obstacles by analysing existing and potential energy cooperation between EU and GCC states in the context of the run-up to COP28. It also highlights the opportunities for the EU in a new approach to climate relations with the GCC states, especially regarding its climate goals and energy security imperatives.