France and Norway sign a strategic partnership on green industrial transformation

The overarching objectives of this strategic partnership are to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to contribute to the creation of new green industries and jobs, improve energy security and foster the circular economy. The partnership also aims to facilitate increased trade and investment, business cooperation, innovation and R&D.

The green shift is driving the need for innovative approaches and solutions. Entirely novel industries are emerging to ensure a resilient energy supply and minimize environmental footprints. These approaches are complex processes that require good coordination between public and private players, and consistency between national support systems and regulatory framework. In this context, cooperation between states is a key factor for success. This French-Norwegian approach towards a greener industry, addressing challenges and solutions through bilateral cooperation will focus on decarbonizing existing industries throughout the entire value chain and creating new green industries such as Capture Carbon and Storage (CCS) technologies.

Today, both countries expressed their intention to regularly exchange views on current issues and developments in the national and European industrial policies, share experiences on best practices as well as challenges in their respective industrial policy frameworks as well as to facilitate matchmaking between French and Norwegian businesses and financial mechanisms. Concretely, dedicated Working Groups in selected sectors and areas of mutual interest will be implemented to identify and follow up with Partnership Roadmaps. The partnership will be structured around three main axes:

• A structured dialogue on CCS to facilitate matchmaking between French and Norwegian businesses in this emerging market.
• A structured dialogue on renewable energy industries to facilitate bilateral investments and industrial projects.
• A strategic dialogue on critical raw materials aiming to promote cooperation on profitable and sustainable development of projects, in particular with identification and support for projects of common interests, and common work on sustainable mining. The dialogue will also include a scientific and technical dialogue between the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) and the French Geological Survey (BRGM) within the agencies scope of work, in particular the national exploration programs for critical raw materials, including geophysical surveys.

In order to ensure an efficient monitoring of these activities, discuss possible new collaboration, endorse, and provide further strategic direction to the work under the partnership, high-level meetings at ministerial level will be organized every year. The dedicated Working Groups will report on the progress of their work to this annual high-level meeting.

– The green strategic partnership between France and Norway is a timely initiative to speed up the green industrial transition. Our cooperation will span from areas such as batteries, minerals, offshore wind and CCS, and we will also team up to facilitate the reestablishment of the solar PV value chain in Europe. Our two countries make a powerful combination, by combining our different expertise, natural resources, and industrial capacity, we can together make real results, said” the Minister of Trade and Industry, Jan Christian Vestre.

– The decarbonization of our economies will only be efficient if global, therefore international cooperation is a key factor of success. Since Norway is an example of carbon capture development in Europe and France drives an ambitious ecological planning to support large industrial decarbonization projects, both countries’ expertise and technologies will make the perfect match to draw up a green European industry path.  I am delighted by this new agreement with a long-time trustful partner such as Norway, stated Bruno Le Maire, Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty.

The statement:

Industripartnerskap Frankrike. Letter of intent. Engelsk 2024.pdf