CGTN Europe discussed the summit with Kingsmill Bond, Energy Strategist for Ember
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00:00Kingsmill Bond is the energy strategist at the think tank Ember. Kingsmill, welcome back, good to see you.
00:06Keir Starmer calling net zero core to national security and prosperity.
00:13How convincing really is this to investors and wider UK industry?
00:21Well, it's absolutely convincing because the narrative has changed in the last three months.
00:25Energy security has moved right up the agenda and people have suddenly realised that a little bit like the frog in the pot, the water's too hot, the Trump's turned up the heat and we need a different energy system which is based on local energy.
00:43So it's absolutely part of the story now.
00:45Why do you think energy security has moved up the agenda so quickly? Why is it so important now?
00:52Well, it's because the US has moved from guarantor of the system to a predator and therefore people are much more nervous about being dependent upon foreign entities,
01:06much more uncertain about the potential for energy to continue to flow along international seaways guaranteed by the US fleet.
01:17I'm much more worried about being subject to President Trump and his coterie.
01:26How can the UK government realistically win over the public?
01:30And we both know that the UK public and the UK business are dealing with very high energy bills,
01:36especially when net zero in the UK is so often framed as a cost, a burden, rather than an economic opportunity.
01:45So, well, Keir Starmer and Ellen Miliband have been saying for a long time now that this is the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century, and so it is.
01:57And the way that you get this argument across to the public is you get prices down, above all prices of electricity.
02:05And here I think it's also quite important to realise that the role of government actually is to solve a lot of the bottlenecks, change the regulatory structures,
02:17the pricing structures, make it easier to deploy these technologies, make it cheaper for us to use solar and wind.
02:25Because what's extraordinary is the price, the wholesale price of these technologies is now very low.
02:30The retail price is still high because of the regulatory structures.
02:34That's where they need to focus now.
02:36They also incidentally need to stop all of these expensive boondoggles, such as nuclear carbon capture and hydrogen networks.
02:45That also adds to the cost and need to focus on electrifying, getting the price of electricity down right now.
02:51Ursula von der Leyen strongly supporting Prime Minister Keir Starmer's message.
02:56Do you think the UK is positioning itself to align more closely with the EU's energy and climate goals?
03:06Of course, after Brexit, many people will raise an eyebrow at that plan, if it is such.
03:13As you know, the foundation, going back in history of the European Union, of course, is the coal and gas work that was done back in the 70s.
03:29So this is absolutely the right thing for the two sides to do, the UK and Europe, because they have an enormous confluity of interest.
03:40They've got that we're occupying the same space.
03:43We have the North Sea, we have the interconnectors, the UK, of course, at the heart of the North Sea.
03:49And actually, this can go a very long way to repairing the pain felt on both sides by Brexit and to building a new atmosphere of trust between the two regions.
03:59Kingsmill, good to see you.
04:00Thanks so much for coming on the programme again.
04:02Kingsmill Bond at the think tank Ember.