00:00We've talked about how consumers and companies are responding to the high price of gas right now and these energy
00:07price spikes.
00:07But Akshat, how do you see governments thinking about this moment as it relates to energy policy?
00:12It really does depend on country to country.
00:15If you're a country that is immensely dependent on importing almost all of your fossil fuels, then yes, you are
00:24looking for alternatives.
00:25Did we see this dynamic after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022?
00:31And how long did the interest in alternative energies last at the consumer level?
00:37At a country level, we can see the data and it's actually quite clear because what happened in Europe specifically
00:43is that there was a concerted understanding among governments that they want to get rid of their dependence on Russian
00:50fossil fuels.
00:51And they had really three options in front of them.
00:53Try and get fossil fuel from other places like the U.S., which would come in the form of liquefied
00:58natural gas, which is more expensive.
01:00And so they did and they paid a lot of money for that.
01:03Cut the use of gas, which also they did.
01:06Some of the industries shut down, but really households also reduced their gas use.
01:10But it's really this is the first type of energy crisis where there is now this third option of going
01:17to clean energy.
01:18And Europe really did manage to pull off an accelerated deployment of renewables in that time.
01:25It's not a story that just remained in Europe.
01:29We also saw this happen in developing countries.
01:32So Pakistan has had some of the most spectacular growth in solar and then a year later in batteries, purely
01:41driven by a gas price spike.
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