CGTN Europe interviewed Kingsmill Bond, Energy Strategist for Ember
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00:00Both countries have ambitious climate goals. The UK was the first major economy
00:06to commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. China has pledged to
00:12achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The United Kingdom is one of the biggest
00:18greenhouse gas emitters in cumulative terms but today accounts for less than
00:23one percent globally. China is currently the world's largest emitter contributing
00:2930% of gas emissions. In terms of technical know-how both countries have a
00:35lot to offer. The UK wants to get at least 95% of its electricity from clean
00:40sources by 2030. It can benefit from China's success in scaling up green tech
00:46like EV, solar and wind power. And in turn China can learn from the UK as a
00:52pioneer in counting carbon emissions and the use of carbon budgets it devised to
00:57phase out coal. Now Kingsmill Bond is an energy strategist for the global energy
01:02think-tank. Ember joins us now. Hello Kingsmill. How significant is this MOU?
01:09This is really important. You have two of the leaders the UK in percentage terms
01:14China obviously in total terms coming together saying in spite of what's going
01:20on in the rest of the world we are going to carry on driving the electrotech
01:25revolution because it works for us. That's very significant. Is it a win-win
01:30for both or is it an obvious benefit to one over the other in your view? Well
01:36we'll have to see but don't forget that both parties have a lot to offer each
01:41other as your commentators were just saying. I think for the UK we would
01:45dramatically benefit from having Chinese technology transfer to build EV and
01:52battery and solar and factories in this country in order to reduce the price in
01:58order to speed up change. And equally the UK has some very specific expertise in
02:04the deployment of offshore wind in what the Committee on Climate Change has been
02:10doing in setting targets to phase coal out of the system. So there's clearly a
02:15lot each side can learn from each other. Coal is such a hot topic quite literally
02:19because we're seeing the fears about global economy slowing and there's
02:24always that temptation to push into coal again to make things move a lot quicker
02:29in terms of production. China of course is committed to reducing its dependence
02:34on coal and the UK has made great strides. Do you think that's an area
02:38where the United Kingdom can really help China? Yeah I think it's worthwhile
02:43emphasizing that actually coal, coal is just a legacy technology and this is a
02:48technology shift and China's successes lie in the deployment of these superior
02:55clean energy technologies of electric vehicles and batteries and solar and
03:00wind. That's where the interesting story lies. There's actually no temptation to
03:04return to coal. The UK just managed to phase it out and I think we can help
03:09China phase coal out more rapidly by deploying some of that expertise. I have
03:13to ask you a question that some would see as political but there is talk of
03:18the UK, China and the EU forming this clean energy block particularly as we're
03:24seeing the United States is talking about drill baby drill. What are your
03:28thoughts on that? Well it's not a particularly political point. It's simply
03:33the fact that this is superior technology which benefits the people who
03:37deploy it more rapidly and again it just sets a very clear message to the rest of
03:43the world that when you can get batteries at less than a hundred dollars
03:49per kilowatt hour and solar panels at ten cents it makes sense to do it and it
03:54makes that sense to deploy as quickly as possible and therefore we have this very
03:58powerful coalition of the willing who want to deploy these technologies
04:01because it benefits them, it benefits their people and it makes energy cheaper
04:07and and quite frankly why wouldn't you do that thing? All right thank you so
04:11much for chatting to us. That's Kingsmill Bond, an energy strategist for
04:15the global energy think-tank EMBA.