As global economies continue to grow, particularly in developing nations, so too does the world’s demand for energy, expected on current estimates to increase by 50% by 2030.And since energy supply and climate change are inter-dependent, the decisions we make about how to make the transition to a low carbon economy are crucial, because climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face - as nations, as governments and as individuals.

That is why the British Government is now placing great emphasis on the need to accelerate the UK’s transition to a low-carbon economy and business has an important role to play in two key areas.

I am delighted that both Britain and the United Arab Emirates clearly share common concerns and a common vision in this important field.Tha is why I was pleased to hear about the World Future Energy Summit held in Abu Dhabi in late January, organised by Abu Dhabi’s Masdar. Indeed, British commitment to the Summit was further underlined by the participation of HRH the Prince of Wales and HRH the Duke of York in the opening ceremony.

British skills, expertise and funding are already closely associated with Masdar, of course. London-based Consensus Business Group is one of the founding partners in the Masdar Clean Tech Fund, while the innovative Masdar City is being designed by London-based architectural firm Foster+Partners. I know, too, that other British or British-related companies, such as BP, one of the world leaders in solar technology, Shell, International Power and Standard Chartered Bank are also closely involved with much of what Masdar is doing, or were active participants in the January summit.

In the future, there is, I am sure, much scope for further co-operation, as Britain and Abu Dhabi both seek to work together to tackle this global challenge for us all to review and to re-examine the way in which we use energy, so that an approach can be found that is sustainable both in economic and in environmental terms.

In Britain, Government has already undertaken some major steps in an effort to reduce our demand for energy. We are outlining our aspirations for demanding new targets for the energy efficiencystandardsandperformanceofnew products and helping businesses become more energy efficientandtocut energy use.

By 2012 we aim to transform the way in which energy suppliers see their relationship with their customers. The idea is to shift the focus to the provision of energy services, increasing energy efficiencyandsavingcarboninthehome, rather than simply selling them gas and electricity.

The second key area where business must play a part is to ensure that we generate our energy from greener sources, such as renewables like wind, solar and biomass.

Our objective is to triple the share of electricity we get from renewables by 2015, just eight years away, while the UK is also playing our part in Europe. The European Union has agreed a target of 20% energy, not just electricity but also heat and transport fuel, from renewable energy sources by 2020.

This target is ambitious but we are fully committed to making our fair contribution to the targets, and will bring forward appropriate measures to do so once individual EU Member States’ shares of the target have been agreed.

Reaching this target will be tough and we need to do everything we can to generate more power from offshore wind farms and other emerging technologies like biomass and wave and tidal, while maximising the contribution from those technologies already being deployed.

We are already making good progress and the UK Government is matching words with action. Thus the go-ahead has recently been given for a major wind project of the coast of Cumbria, in northern England, which will produce enough clean electricity for approximately 360,000 homes when fully operational in 2013

.Innovative projects like the new wave and tidal testing facility off the Orkney Islands, the recently approved Wave Hub in Cornwall and a Severn Barrage, if developed, will all ensure the UK remains a centre of renewable excellence.

We are also determined to help businesses as well as consumers, install micro-wind turbines, solar panels and other microgeneration technologies on their homes, community buildings and offices.Much of our effort is being under taken through the Low Carbon Building Programme to encourage take up of microgeneration technologies. For businesses, we are working in partnership with the Carbon Trust - a private company set up by government in response to the threat of climate change - to help demonstrate low carbon designs, integrating energy efficiencyand microgeneration technologies in more standard buildings where there is greater scope for replication.

Small generators, both business and domestic, can also benefitfromsupportunder the Renewables Obligation (RO). And although the RO is primarily a mechanism for helping large scale generators, we have taken a number of steps to make it easier for the small generators to participate in the scheme too.

It is this type of vision that will contribute to our long term climate change targets and we all have a part to play, particularly business whose input is crucial.

It will also be essential to develop clean coal technologies - the International Energy Agency’s 2007 World Energy Outlook suggests that global coal use could increase by 73% by 2030. This is why the UK has recently launched a competition to support one of the world’s firs tcommercial scale demonstrations of the full chain of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies on a coal-fired powerplant.We aim to have this operational by 2014. CCS technologies have the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 90%, so will be important for achieving the global carbon mitigation required to address climate change.

In addition to this major demonstration project, the UK Government has a fund of £35m to encourage the industry-led demonstration of elements that contribute to Carbon Abatement Technologies, including CCS.Another step has been the creation of the Environmental Transformation Fund, a £1.2 billion fund for the three years from April 2008 to March 2011, while more money will be spent on research and development, including at least £600 million over the next decade on the launch of the new Energy Technologies Institute.

The Government’s ambition is to make the UK the best place in the world for investment in renewable technology. Over the next 20 years as the world adapts to a low-carbon economy, there will be a massive increase in the demand for low carbon technologies and for construction and engineering capability able to move from country to country at short notice.

That international aspect is, of course, one reason why we in Britain are so determined to work as closely as possible with our friends and partners in the United Arab Emirates to tackle the challenges ahead as well as taking serious steps to tackle climate change. There is, I believe, great scope for us both to benefit from sharing the results of the programmes of research, education and experiment that we are both putting in place in our own countries, and for us both, at the same time, to share the benefitsofthosewithothers elsewhere in the world.

It is vital that we move forward in partnership - government, business and individuals - because it is in all our interests to ensure we get it right..