00:00Now, as leaders gather at COP31, where electrification and a transition away from fossil fuels is a key item on
00:07the agenda,
00:08the British energy firm Octopus Energy has launched a new investment fund focusing on electrification in Asia.
00:15Will Denslow spoke to its founder and CEO.
00:18If we can build more renewables and particularly use those to power more electric cars,
00:24we can help Asian people escape these crises of fossil fuels for good.
00:32Here at COP, a huge focus is on electrification and this 35% of the mix coming from electricity rather
00:41than fossil fuels by the year 2035.
00:45What is the significance of that target?
00:47If we can increase the amount of energy that's electric, we reduce our emissions automatically.
00:52I don't know if you know, but an electric car has lower emissions than a petrol car,
00:57even if all the electricity came from, I don't know, gas or coal.
01:01So electrification is a good thing.
01:03But importantly for the people of the world, the more we electrify, the cheaper we make things like driving, heating
01:12and cooling our homes.
01:13So electrification is really important, not only for the climate, but also for cost.
01:18How important is it to drive a narrative for renewables to make up a bigger and bigger chunk of that
01:24electrification going forward?
01:26It's really important to move to renewables.
01:30First of all, obviously that stops the damage we're doing to the climate.
01:34You know, this is probably going to be the hottest year on record globally.
01:39We have to tackle climate change.
01:41I know there's a lot of people in Asia and countries that are suffering from this, suffering from terrible floods,
01:47from droughts, from rising sea levels.
01:50So we have to move to renewables to protect our climate.
01:54But it's also good for cost.
01:56When you use renewables, you can generate the electricity yourself.
02:00You can generate it on your own rooftop.
02:02You can generate it in solar farms outside your town or village or city.
02:05You can generate it from wind farms in your own country or off the coast.
02:10You are so much more in control with renewables than you are when you're stuck with fossil fuels.
02:17And at COP previously, there's been this pledge, $300 billion a year by the year 2035 for climate financing.
02:29Activists say that's simply a drop in the bucket.
02:31It's not enough.
02:32How important is it for the private sector, for investment funds like this, to start to fill the void?
02:38Investment funds invest when it makes sense financially.
02:42The great thing about moving to renewables and clean energy is we can give people better value from these investments.
02:49It's no longer a sacrifice for consumers.
02:52The cheapest car you can buy is an electric car, and they're getting cheaper every year.
02:56The cheapest electricity you can generate is solar, followed by onshore wind.
03:02And batteries are 10 times cheaper than they were just over a decade ago.
03:05China's responsible for so many of the technology innovations that have made this possible, and the world's going to benefit.
03:12So if we're investing in these technologies, we can do it to bring people better value than they've ever had
03:19before.
03:20That's an amazing opportunity for businesses, but also for the citizens, and of course for our climate.
