New Zealand and Iceland have recently signed an agreement to deepen cooperation on geothermal energy development.
“This agreement builds on decades of shared expertise and paves the way for further collaboration to advance progress in this critical sector,” Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said.
“It marks a new chapter in both nations’ long-standing interest in renewable energy innovation.”
The cooperation will be implemented through joint research projects, industry workshops, and academic exchanges.
According to Resources Minister Shane Jones, the agreement will target superhot and supercritical geothermal technologies, which have the potential to transform global energy production and supply.
“Geothermal energy could be a game-changer for secure and affordable energy in New Zealand. This agreement reflects our countries’ shared ambition to unlock the full potential of geothermal energy,” Jones said.
New Zealand sees geothermal energy as critical for ensuring affordable, secure, and clean energy and aims to double renewable energy generation by 2050 with a boost in geothermal production by 2040.
New Zealand and Iceland’s partnership continues to build on recent collaborations, including the appointment of two Icelandic experts to New Zealand’s International Peer Review Panel for its supercritical geothermal project.
The formal Memorandum of Arrangement was signed at COP 30 in Belem, Brazil, by Climate Change Minister Simon Watts and Iceland’s Minister of the Environment, Energy and Climate, Jóhann Páll Jóhannsson.