UK and India: powering a shared clean energy future

The global energy landscape is undergoing a transformational change with countries aligning their efforts to tackle climate change. But there’s work still left to be done to limit global warming to 1.5°C. This gap between ambition and action underscores the urgent need for innovation and long term partnerships.

For the UK, this transition is a top priority. Making Britain a clean energy superpower is one of the government’s five national missions. Through our Modern Industrial Strategy - a 10 year renewal plan - clean energy has been placed at the heart of the UK’s growth agenda, identified as one of eight priority sectors. Through this strategy we are targeting at least a doubling of current investment levels across our frontier clean energy industries to over GBP30 billion per year by 2035. Our goal is clear - strengthen clean energy infrastructure, reduce costs for businesses, and simplify regulation across frontier sectors such as offshore wind, hydrogen, nuclear, and carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS), among others. These interventions are designed to help global partners scale faster and de risk investment in net zero technologies.

We see India as a natural partner in this journey. In July 2025, the UK and India signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), widely known as the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). We are now focused on implementing this deal so that businesses can take full advantage of the new access that we’ve secured as part of the deal. The FTA, when implemented, is expected to increase bilateral trade by close to GBP25.5 billion annually in the long term.

But the deal is about more than just tariff reduction. The FTA will enhance market access, align regulatory frameworks, strengthen intellectual property protections, and facilitate smoother cross-border movement of professionals and technology. Under the FTA, the UK will eliminate duties on 99% of Indian goods, while India will cut or reduce tariffs on 90% of UK products. This means we can scale-up rapidly in the clean energy sector, where India’s market requirements meet the UK’s cutting-edge R&D expertise.
 
We have seen an ever-increasing momentum from businesses to participate in each other's markets. The UK’s participation at India Energy Week (IEW) 2026 was a testimony to this. The UK Net Zero Pavilion at IEW 2026 acted as an enabling platform to further conversations with leading Indian policymakers, developers and industrial partners to explore collaboration opportunities. A new generation of British clean-energy innovators, moving beyond theory to deploying real-world solutions, exhibited their solutions as part of the UK Pavilion. We had companies ranging from long-duration energy storage pioneers through to renewable energy developers, all engaged in meaningful conversations that align with the shared ambitions outlined in the India-UK Vision 2035.

I am very pleased to share that we are already seeing tangible outcomes. A number of our participating companies have started taking significant steps to strengthen this collaboration. UK-founded Organicco is launching an Indian subsidiary to manufacture climate-tech systems converting waste into fuels and bio-fertiliser. ThinkClock, a UK clean energy technology company, has secured pilot validation contracts with Bangalore-based LICO Materials late last year. London-based Applied Computing will be soon debuting Insite 3.0 with KBR, through their use of Orbital AI to optimise ammonia production efficiency.

In addition, the UK-funded Climate Finance Accelerator (CFA) is opening a Call for Proposals in India in February, offering targeted sectors technical expertise and access to investors to help accelerate global low-carbon growth.

All of these developments highlight the strength of UK innovation and the confidence of British companies to participate in India’s rapidly expanding clean energy ecosystem.

As the UK and India deepen cooperation across renewables, green hydrogen, energy storage and grid modernisation, the UK’s focus remains on being a long-term partner of choice – a partner that combines advanced research, project finance capability and deployment experience that matches India’s scale and ambition. Together, this is enabling both our nations to shape resilient, low carbon energy systems and competitive clean technology supply chains that can drive growth not only in our economies, but across global markets.

Through our trade and policy work in India, we are actively engaging with key stakeholders across India’s rapidly evolving green energy ecosystem.

To learn more about our work, or to explore partnership opportunities with UK clean-energy companies, please visit our official website at www.business.gov.uk