UK and Belgium have put energy and climate cooperation on a faster footing. In a joint statement published on 12 December 2025, both governments set a first‑half‑of‑2026 window to sign a bilateral arrangement under the London Protocol to enable cross‑border CO2 transport for permanent storage. They also committed to progress the Nautilus power link, establish green shipping corridors, and hold annual security‑of‑supply exchanges with biennial energy dialogues.

This update builds on their February 2022 energy memorandum, which prioritised multi‑purpose interconnectors, offshore wind, low‑carbon hydrogen and CCUS. Refreshing that pact now signals a push to convert plans into on‑the‑water projects, with regulators and operators aligned earlier in the process.

The case for deeper power links is already proven. The existing 1 GW Nemo Link between Zeebrugge and Kent has moved 29 TWh since 2019 and, according to National Grid, helped avoid around 1.4 million tonnes of CO2 over five years-evidence that interconnection can trim emissions while balancing variable wind.

Nautilus would go a step further as a hybrid interconnector that trades electricity between Britain and Belgium and directly connects offshore wind into both grids. Belgian TSO Elia and National Grid Ventures say the project has EU Project of Common Interest status because it can cut curtailment and improve price convergence.

The regional backdrop is clear. At the Ostend North Sea Summit, nine countries set combined targets of at least 120 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and a minimum of 300 GW by 2050, with hydrogen development flagged alongside grid build‑out. Nautilus and similar hybrid links are designed for that future.

Grid integration has real money at stake. The European Parliament reports almost 30 TWh of renewable generation was curtailed across six countries in 2023, costing close to €9 billion, while congestion management hit €4.2 billion that year. ENTSO‑E urges faster cross‑border build‑out and flexibility to keep system costs down and reliability up.

Security sits alongside expansion. On 9 April 2024, six North Sea countries, including the UK and Belgium, signed a declaration to protect subsea infrastructure. The NorthSeal platform then went live on 15 January 2025, giving authorities a shared tool to track suspicious activity around cables and pipelines.

The 2026 UK–Belgium CO2 arrangement will lean on international rules. A 2009 amendment to the London Protocol permits CO2 export for sub‑seabed storage, and since 2019 countries have been able to apply it provisionally through bilateral agreements filed with the IMO; nine governments have done so to date. Formalising the UK–Belgium arrangement would clarify permitting and responsibilities.

Belgium is equipping the ports for that trade. Fluxys and Equinor plan a Zeebrugge CO2 hub linked to Norwegian storage, with an offshore pipeline sized at 20–40 million tonnes per year, while Antwerp@C is building open‑access infrastructure to collect, liquefy and export captured CO2 from Europe’s largest integrated chemical cluster.

On shipping, both countries are Clydebank Declaration signatories and sit on the IMO Council, aligning corridor pilots with the IMO’s 2023 strategy-net‑zero ‘by or around 2050’ with checkpoints in 2030 and 2040. Zeebrugge’s shore‑power project, due from 2027, shows how ports can cut emissions at berth while corridor fuels scale.

Hydrogen cooperation is built into the regional work plan. The North Seas Energy Cooperation has set up a support group on offshore renewable hydrogen for 2025–2027, while the UK–Belgium MoU lists low‑carbon hydrogen as a shared priority-useful for projects that pair wind with electrolysers and interconnectors.

Next steps will come quickly: the London Protocol arrangement in the first half of 2026, Nautilus regulatory milestones, and corridor proposals from ports. For investors, Ofgem’s updated cap‑and‑floor regime is the reference point for new interconnectors heading toward final investment decisions.