Octopus Centre for Net Zero: Driving the green energy revolution globally

With everything else going on in the world, it’s easy to forget that we are also going through a climate crisis. The world is still heating up, and while we may have more immediate priorities right now, carbon emissions still need to be reduced and targets on carbon neutrality need to be met so that we can secure the planet’s future.

Enter the Octopus Centre for Net Zero (OCNZ), a new, London-based research facility that will take the fight against climate change to government level. Bringing together the biggest and best brains in tech, environment, econometrics and policy to create research and tools that governments and businesses around the world will be able to use to accelerate the uptake of clean technologies and green energy.

Though we're funding it, the OCNZ will be completely independent, autonomous and tackle the issues that they deem most necessary to driving down carbon emissions and creating a world for the future.

Two of the first/most carbon heavy industries it will focus on will be residential heating and transport, which together accounted for over half of overall carbon emissions in 2019.

So why have we set up this research house? You might have noticed a couple of rounds of investment we gained last year, with Tokyo Gas of Japan and Origin Energy of Australia lauding us for our mission, technology and drive. This investment means we can invest heavier in research and development to make even more change than we were before.

In 5 years we’ve switched 1.9 million customers over to green energy tariffs, driving down the collective carbon emission of the UK. With the Octopus Centre for Net Zero and recently acquired Upside Energy, we can create policies, research and technology that will drastically reduce carbon emissions globally.

The climate emergency is the biggest challenge of our lifetime, but good policies and investments can help decarbonise our planet without compromising quality of life. But no country can solve this crisis on their own.

By sharing insights, best practices, tools and models, we have a chance to speed up the much needed change and get us on the fast-track to net zero. I can’t wait to get started and bring together a team of experts that will drive the knowledge transfer between the energy industry and policy makers.

For more information on the Octopus Centre for Net Zero, please visit octopuszero.org.