Chinese and UK ministers hold dialogue on energy cooperation. How significant is this?

CGTN Europe

CGTN Europe interviewed Kingsmill Bond, Energy Strategist for Ember

Transcript

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.

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