Sumitomo To Invest $10 Billion In UK Clean Energy

In a groundbreaking step that will fundamentally propel the United Kingdom towards a clean energy age, the UK government announced a new strategic agreement with Japan-based Sumitomo Corporation. Signed on July 10, 2025, the agreement commits Sumitomo to enabling £7.5 billion (circa USD $10.2 billion) of investments in the country's flagship clean energy and infrastructure development projects by 2035.

The announcement is in line with the UK government's vision for becoming a world leader in green energy and net zero infrastructure. The investments are targeted towards offshore wind and hydrogen schemes—two of the most promising areas in reaching net zero. The plans will be created with the aim not only of reducing emissions but also to provide thousands of high-paying jobs, driving economic growth in and around urban and rural towns.

Hajime Mori, Managing Executive Officer of Sumitomo Corporation and Group CEO of the Energy Transformation Business Group, cited Sumitomo's long history in the UK and its focus on clean energy. "We have been making active investments in various areas of the UK business, from decarbonization to clean energy," Mori stated. "Clean energy has been recognized as a priority sector under the UK's new industrial strategy.". By signing this deal with the Office for Investment, we will be, once again, leveraging our strength to spur growth in the clean energy sector in the UK.

The deal aligns fully with the priorities of the Labour government, which entered office a year ago. At the forefront of one of the government's key economic goals is doubling green investment and maintaining economic growth and resilience. The country has always emphasized the strategic value of more intense commercial relationships with the Asia-Pacific. Since the UK-APAC trade link is now worth over £135 billion, this agreement represents an additional intensification of the relationships, particularly in high-impact sectors like renewable energy and infrastructure.

The new deal also underpins the UK's wider strategy for modernising and simplifying investment in the UK. It is part of one of the measures of the newly established Modern Industrial Strategy, which will make the UK more open to global investors and drive growth in industries of the future. This is also backed by the UK's 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy, which provides long-term aspirations to transform and enhance transport, energy, and digital infrastructure to serve a low-carbon economy.

Baroness Poppy Gustafsson, the UK’s Minister for Investment, hailed the agreement as a significant win for the country’s clean energy ambitions. “We’re serious about clean energy as a key growth sector, and deals like this create high value jobs, encourage further investment into our world-leading industry and help boost economic growth right across,” she said.

Sumitomo's planned investment will help the UK not only meet its net zero goal but also enhance its energy security by reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels. Offshore wind and hydrogen, in particular, are poised to make a revolutionary difference. The UK already boasts some of the world's biggest offshore wind farms, and further development is capable of doubling, even tripling capacity over the next decade. Hydrogen, on the other hand, is gaining traction as a green fuel option for heavy industry and transport.

The Office for Investment, the one that spearheaded the negotiations to the accord, stated that it will sustain the momentum in securing similar high-impact partnerships to fulfill the UK's strategic aims. It also emphasized sustainable and long-term cooperation with global partners as needed in the pursuit of delivering the nation's green ambitions.

This deal with Sumitomo is as much a measure of the UK's attractiveness as an investment destination as it is of its capacity to establish strategic partnerships that deliver. In the growing pressure of the climate emergency, investments like this are becoming ever more vital in helping drive the decarbonisation efforts required of the world.

Even though the UK will remain at the forefront of propelling the green industrial revolution ahead, this new deal is a leap of colossal proportions in the right direction—one which is economic, environmental, and geopolitically beneficial to the foreseeable future.