National Grid, SSE, Octopus and Kraken to sponsor UK pavilion at COP31

Four British energy companies will sponsor the UK's pavilion at the COP31 climate summit next month, cutting the cost to taxpayers and giving UK clean energy firms a stage to show the world what they can do.

National Grid, SSE, Octopus Energy and Kraken Technologies have been named as Official Partners of the UK Pavilion at COP31, which takes place in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November. The government announced the partners today.

Familiar names and a newcomer

National Grid and SSE have been partners of the UK Pavilion every year since COP26 in Glasgow, and Octopus Energy has sponsored it since COP28. Kraken Technologies, the energy software company that started in the UK, joins as a new partner this year.

All four met Katie White, the Minister for Climate Transition, on 15 October to talk about how government and business can work together to speed up the move to clean energy and deliver practical action at the summit.

Throughout COP31, the pavilion will host panel discussions, roundtables and receptions designed to showcase British climate leadership and bring governments, businesses and campaigners together. It will be open for the whole conference.

What the partners say

Greg Jackson, founder and chief executive of Octopus Energy, said: "As yet another record-hot summer shows, tackling climate change remains a priority. But just as the space race brought incredible new inventions to improve the world, so the technologies of tackling climate are now bringing us cheaper energy and, even more crucially, energy security."

Claire Lund, chief sustainability officer at National Grid, said: "COP31 is an important opportunity to share practical solutions, learn from each other and accelerate delivery."

Devrim Celal, chief flexibility and marketing officer at Kraken, said the company now manages more than 10 gigawatts of flexibility, "equivalent to the capacity of 6 large coal-fired power stations, without the need to build any." He added: "We are proud to be an Official Partner of UK Pavilion at COP31 and to work alongside the UK government to show how British technology can accelerate the global energy transition."

SSE's chief executive, Martin Pibworth, said the company is investing £33 billion in renewables, grids, storage and flexibility.

Why it matters

The annual COP summits are the United Nations climate conferences. Sponsorship lowers the cost of the UK's presence there, and the partners get the chance to show delegates how British expertise, investment and innovation can deliver the energy transition.

For households in Birmingham, the businesses involved are familiar ones. National Grid provides the network infrastructure that delivers energy, and Octopus Energy says it supplies 11 million households around the world. The ideas on show in Antalya, from getting more out of the existing grid to smart tariffs for heat pumps and electric cars, are the same ones that shape household energy bills here.

COP31 opens on Monday 9 November.