At the end of August, Mr. Nur Bekri, the Deputy Director of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Director of National Energy Administration (NEA) held in Beijing a meeting with Baroness Neville-Rolfe, UK Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. At the meeting, they had an in-depth exchange of views on the hot topics of China-UK in the field of energy, including the visions of Hinkley Point Project development.
Given the complementarity of the two countries on energy cooperation, both sides agree to identify future direction, guidelines and priority areas for energy cooperation and open China-UK energy dialogue to encourage entrepreneurs, experts and officials of both countries to expand exchanges and carry out more substantive cooperation, thus, to realize the establishment of clean energy partnership in the soonest possible.
This meeting happened just before the announcement on September 15, of the approval by the UK Government of the subsidy deal for the UK £18 Billion project in Hinkley point. The Chinese group CGN is due to fund one-third of the EDF-led Hinkley project in return for the chance to develop its own reactor at Bradwell in Essex. It is understood that China has privately been assured its plans for Bradwell are still welcome, despite the new safeguards.
Note:The Minister of State for Energy and Intellectual Property is responsible for:
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energy (with the Minister for Industry and Energy)
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nuclear
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oil and gas, including shale gas
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low carbon generation
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security of supply
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electricity and gas wholesale markets and networks
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energy efficiency and heat, including fuel poverty
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smart meters and smart systems
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international energy
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energy security, including resilience and emergency planning
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intellectual property
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EU single market
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Other lead on all Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) issues
