Before he founded the geothermal startup Fervo in 2017, Tim Latimer was a drilling engineer for the oil and gas industry — a job he loved. “Honestly, if it wasn't for climate change, I probably wouldn’t have ever changed my career,” he says this week on Zero. Now Latimer is applying his drilling know-how to Fervo’s wells, supercharging their energy production in the process. The company opened its first power plant in Nevada late in 2023, and is now in the process of opening another plant in Utah. Latimer and Akshat Rathi chat about opportunities in geothermal, the infernal permitting process, and why Fervo has its sights on expanding into Kenya, Indonesia, Turkey and the Philippines.

Explore further:

• Past episode with the National Grid’s Sanjeet Sanghera about the need to update the grid on the path to net zero
• Past episode with Bill Gates about investing in nuclear power and other green energy plants
• Past episode with BNEF’s Claire Curry about how clean energy technology startups can succeed in a difficult investment climate 

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim and Monique Mulima. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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The “cold chain” that delivers our food is inconspicuous but vast. The US alone boasts around 5.5 billion cubic feet of refrigerated space; that’s 150 Empire State Buildings’ worth of freezers. Now, the developing world is catching up. On Zero, Nicola Twilley, author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves, discusses how refrigeration became so ubiquitous and what our reliance on it means for our palates and the planet. 

Explore further:

• Past episode with Stacey Abrams on how kitchen-table decisions can cut emissions
• Past episode with journalist George Monbiot on how the world’s food system needs a radical rethink 
• Past episode with two vertical farming companies taking agriculture indoors

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Aaron Rutkoff and Monique Mulima. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Earlier this month, tech billionaire Bill Gates broke ground on a new nuclear plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming– a historic coal town. Gates tells Zero why he hopes the plant, which uses sodium for cooling, rather than water, will be the first of many in the country– no matter who wins this year’s election. “The idea of the US being more energy secure and US innovation allowing us to export, those things are still somewhat bipartisan in nature,” he says. Plus, he weighs in on AI as both a major generator of emissions and as a potential source of climate solutions.

Explore further:

• Past episode with BNEF’s Claire Curry on how energy startups can dodge the valley of death
• Past episode with Brookfield Asset Management CCEO Connor Teskey on making renewables a profitable bet
• Past episode with Bill Gates on the significance of the Inflation Reduction Act

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Kate Evans, and Alicia Clanton. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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The task of cutting emissions is becoming more urgent by the day. Are democracies up to the challenge? Do we have time to let the usual course of consensus-building and debate play out, or should governments around the world prioritize climate action at any cost? In this week’s episode of Zero, Bloomberg Green’s Akshat Rathi puts these questions to Daniel J. Fiorino, director of the Center for Environmental Policy at American University and author of Can Democracy Handle Climate Change?

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll.Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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Carbon offsets are everywhere – a $2 billion dollar industry that’s set to grow even more as the US is even incorporating them in its effort to fulfill international climate pledges. Yet in the thirty years since they were created, they have not been proven to work. How did such a good idea go wrong and why is it so sticky? In this episode of Zero, Akshat talks to Mark Trexler of The Climatographers, who helped build the first carbon offset program in 1988, about what went wrong with offsets and if there’s any way to fix them. 

Read more about the dodgy world of carbon offsets in Bloomberg’s three part investigation. 

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit www.bloomberg.com/green.

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What’s worse for the planet than Big Oil? The world’s food system, argues environmental journalist and campaigner George Monbiot in his new book Regenesis. He makes a passionate case for how current agricultural practices not only damage the environment, but prevent vast amounts of land from being rewilded and restored to its natural state. Monbiot speaks with Bloomberg Green reporter Akshat Rathi about his proposed solutions, which include an end to livestock farming entirely and using new technologies like precision fermentation to meet the world’s rising demand for protein.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim and Stacey Wong. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit www.bloomberg.com/green.

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COP27 ended with a historic agreement on loss and damage, but other major challenges remain — including the gap that has long existed between energy needs in Africa and the funding that the continent receives. As the “Africa COP” comes to an end, Akshat speaks with two experts about the continent’s unique financing challenges: Rebekah Shirley, director of research, data and innovation at the World Resources Institute Africa, explains the “chicken and egg problem,” and IFC Managing Director Makthar Diop, who talks about the institution's strategy for reaching $60B in funding by 2025. We’re also joined by Bloomberg News editors Siobhan Wagner and Will Kennedy to discuss what happened on the sidelines of COP27. 

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim and Stacey Wong. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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Lewis Pugh has swum across seas and in between melting sea ice, but the hardest part of his work is what comes after – contributing to negotiations to protect those same bodies from development. And he’s been successful: In 2016 he got the Russians to sign a pact to create a marine protected area in the Ross Sea – one of the few healthy seas left, and the size of Britain, France, Germany, Italy put together. A negotiation should be an exploration, not a battle, he tells Akshat Rathi. Pugh also talks about how he got his start, the swim that made him into an environmental advocate and what he wants to come out of COP27. Akshat speaks with Salma El Wardany, a Bloomberg News energy and commodities reporter based in Cairo, and Zero producer Oscar Boyd, about their experiences of COP27.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim and Stacey Wong. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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Whether the so-called implementation COP will live up to its promise will be answered this week as negotiators begin to do the work of writing the final agreement. Bloomberg Green Reporter Akshat Rathi spoke with young climate activists about their engagement with this COP, the difficulty of activism in a repressive country and how they are making change in their own nations. We’re also joined by Bloomberg News reporters John Ainger and Jen Dlouhy to discuss the latest announcements from the conference regarding loss and damage.

Read our story on the difficulties climate activists faced at COP27.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim and Stacey Wong. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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As week one wraps up at COP27 in Sharm El Sheik in Egypt, Bloomberg Green Reporter Akshat Rathi talks with Patricia Espinosa, who until August 2022 was the executive secretary of the UNFCCC, the body charged with organizing the annual COP climate conferences. Espinosa tells Zero what goes on behind the scenes at COP to get the 200 participating member states to agree, and why the global platform is vital for making any progress on climate issues. We’re also joined by Yinka Ibukun, Bloomberg News West Africa Bureau Chief, to hear about whether the “African COP” is living up to its name. 

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim, Laura Millan and Stacey Wong. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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We are rapidly approaching the end of week one at COP27 and all eyes are turning to the US, with President Biden to make a visit on Friday. Bloomberg Green Reporter Akshat Rathi sits down with White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi to talk about the Biden administration’s climate accomplishments in climate policy and how the US will make its impressive commitments reality. We’re also joined by John Fraher, the head of ESG and energy at Bloomberg News, to talk about how shifting domestic and international politics are playing out at COP27.

You can watch Bloomberg Live’s COP27 coverage here.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim and Stacey Wong. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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After a frenetic two days of discussions at COP27, with hundreds of leaders arriving in Egypt, the demands of vulnerable countries are clear: show us the money. On Zero’s second episode from Sharm el-Sheikh, we’re joined by Prime Minister Philip Davis of the Bahamas, to hear about the impacts of climate change on the low-lying archipelago nation, why he wants developed countries to pay for the protection of Bahamian oceans, and Caribbean nations’ demands for a levy on oil exports. We’re also joined by Bloomberg Green executive editor Aaron Rutkoff, who updates us with the latest from COP27. 

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim and Stacey Wong. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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COP27 has begun, with 45,000 delegates expected to attend the two-week conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. One of the key discussion points is financing for “loss and damage,” the idea that developed countries with high historical emissions should pay for climate damages in developing countries. On Zero’s first episode recorded at COP27, we’re joined by Professor Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development and a champion of climate vulnerable countries. With loss and damage being formally on the agenda of this year’s climate negotiations, Huq explains what’s at stake. We also hear from Bloomberg contributing editor Allegra Stratton, the UK’s spokesperson for COP26, on how COP27 can build upon the achievements of last year.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. 

For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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We are living through the hottest year on record. That’s not news, but growing climate impacts make bigger and bigger news. At 1.3C of warming beyond pre-industrial levels, people are reckoning with a planetary system that’s out of whack. It’s not like the scientists didn’t see worsening impacts coming, but many of them have been surprised by the ferocity with which some have played out. On this week’s episode of Zero, Bloomberg Green’s Akshat Rathi speaks with his colleague Eric Roston, and Texas Tech University professor Katharine Hayhoe explains why we’re all experiencing “global weirding.”

Explore further:

• Past episode about the role fire will play in shaping the 21st century.
• Past episode with UN’s global chief heat officer about redesigning cities.
• Past episode about finding trillions of dollars needed for climate adaptation.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Anna Mazarakis and Alicia Clanton. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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While the United States fancies itself a global climate leader, the country is coming off a decade of tumultuous policy: It signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, withdrew two years later, and didn’t rejoin until 2021. Now, as the country counts down to midterm elections and the start of COP27 climate talks in Egypt, Americans are taking stock of whether US President Joe Biden has lived up to his promises. Akshat Rathi talks to Leah Stokes, a political scientist who contributed to the Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest US climate bill. They also talk about how the IRA came together, her wish list for additional green policies, and how the IRA will affect US standing at COP27.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. 

For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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Weather data is invaluable. It influences the decisions of governments and companies around the world. It’s used to predict energy consumption, harvests, and even when countries might go to war. So what does it mean when vast portions of the world have insufficient weather data in an era of worsening climate change? This week on Zero, Bloomberg Green reporter Laura Millan tells the story of weather stations 61223 in Timbuktu, and what its sudden closure means for climate science across the African continent, and the upcoming negotiations at COP27.

Read Laura’s full story on weather station 61223 and Africa’s lack of climate data here.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. 

For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit bloomberg.com/green

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Finally made to reckon with the climate crisis, most oil companies are turning to clean-energy technologies. Not Occidental Petroleum. Akshat Rathi talks to Oxy CEO Vicki Hollub to find out why. Under Hollub’s leadership, Oxy became the first US oil company to set a science-based target to reach net zero. The road it has chosen to get there is an atypical one. Rather than reducing oil and gas production, Oxy wants to make net-zero oil by investing heavily in carbon-capture technology. Rathi asks Hollub how exactly Oxy will build out this technology, how it will pay for it, and why she believes her company’s oil is the way to tackle climate change.

Read a full transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. 

For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pitches the country as a leader on climate and says it is on track to reduce emissions 45% by 2030. The reality is different. Canada has the second highest per-capita CO2 emissions in the G-20, its oil industry is booming, and its emissions remain persistently high. On this week’s episode of Zero, Trudeau joins Zero host Akshat Rathi to discuss when Canada’s emissions will start to fall for real, and how it can achieve its climate pledges when its economy and politics remain so tied to oil and gas. 

This conversation was recorded live at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa at an event hosted by the Canadian Climate Institute and the Net Zero Advisory Body.

Read a full transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. 

For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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Climate was the defining issue of this year’s elections in Australia, with independent and green candidates promising climate action sweeping into power. Now the country has a new climate law, enshrining a 43% cut in emissions by 2030. But does it live up to what the science demands? Joining Zero this week are two politicians that were instrumental to passing the bill: Adam Bandt, leader of the Australian Greens, and David Pocock, whose journey from Australia’s rugby captain to politics has made him a deciding vote in the country’s senate. 

Read a full transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. 

For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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Steel is the backbone of modern society, and it’s also responsible for 7% of global greenhouse-gas emissions every year. This summer, Bloomberg Green reporter Akshat Rathi visited a US startup that says they can clean it all up. Operating in a suburban office park in Colorado, Electra is coming out of stealth mode. It claims to have developed a way to get through the most energy-intensive part of steelmaking at temperatures lower than fresh coffee. Akshat dives into the science and story of Electra with CEO Sandeep Nijhawan.

You can read the full feature about Electra here.

Read a full transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our senior producer is Christine Driscoll and our producer is Oscar Boyd. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. 

For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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What role will the landmark climate bill in the US play in spurring innovation? Is cutting emissions in rich countries enough to solve the climate crisis? Bloomberg Green’s Akshat Rathi talks to Bill Gates about what’s needed to create zero-emission economies, how Europe should face up to its energy crisis, and how he helped persuade Democratic Senator Joe Manchin to sign the Inflation Reduction Act.

Read an in-depth story about all the people who influenced the passage of the climate bill.

Read a full transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our senior producer is Christine Driscoll and our producer is Oscar Boyd. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. 

For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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What role does venture capital have in bringing carbon-cutting technologies to reality? Does it prop up bad ideas or free outrageous ones? In this episode, Bloomberg Green’s Akshat Rathi talks to Gabriel Kra of Prelude Ventures about the role venture capital plays in boosting the US cleantech industry and how the new US climate bill is changing the startup landscape.  

Read more about the battery startup QuantumScape that Kra mentions as a key success story for VC funding.

Read a full transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our senior producer is Christine Driscoll and our producer is Oscar Boyd. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. 

For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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The UK’s Climate Change Act was one of the first in the world to be passed in 2008 and is part of the reason the nation became a leader in cutting emissions. But now, as the UK faces an energy shortage, has a new government in power, and a climate-champion King, the Act’s strength and flexibility will be tested. Bloomberg Green reporter Akshat Rathi talks to Baroness Bryony Worthington, one of the authors of the Act, about the unique political moment that led to its passage, how she envisions it will face up to multiple crises, and why other countries have copied the framework. 

Read more about a key institution that keeps the UK on track to meet climate goals. 

Read a full transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. It is produced by Christine Driscoll and Oscar Boyd. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. 

For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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Zero explores the tactics and technologies taking us to a world of zero emissions. Each week, Bloomberg Green’s award-winning climate reporter Akshat Rathi talks to the people who are making it happen. Episodes launch September 15.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. It is produced by Christine Driscoll and Oscar Boyd. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. 

For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green

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The 2016 fire that encircled the oil-producing town of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, forced more than 80,000 people to evacuate and left billions of dollars in damage in its wake. It was a disaster of record-breaking proportions, but also an inevitable byproduct of mankind’s obsession with burning fossil fuels. In this episode, John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather: A True Story from A Hotter World, explains how Canada’s fossil fuel industry came into being, why its existence made the Fort McMurray disaster more likely, and what our collective obsession with fire means for the future of our species.

Explore further:

• Past episode about the COP28 text and the significance of agreeing to transition off fossil fuels
• Past episode with Bloomberg Opinion columnist David Fickling about whether the world has reached peak crude oil demand
• Past episode about how wildfire smoke and air pollution affect your health

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Anna Mazarakis and Alicia Clanton. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors were shut down after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. As the country's energy needs soar, debate is heating up over whether to bring the world’s largest nuclear plant back online. In this bonus from The Big Take Asia, host K. Oanh Ha speaks to reporter Shoko Oda about her visit to the Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant and the challenges to rebooting it.

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Over the past 18 months, Tesla has missed its sales goals, seen its share price fall and waded through a series of dramatic decisions from Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, who cut car prices, fired much of the Supercharger team and announced nebulous plans to release a robotaxi. All of that looks like a pivot away from the original mission of making mass-market electric cars, but does Tesla going off course really matter to the EV transition? On this week’s Zero, Bloomberg Opinion columnist Liam Denning digs into Tesla’s strategy and what its evolution means for global adoption of electric cars. 

Explore further:

• Past episode with Carnegie Mellon University professor Venkat Viswanathan on the futuristic promises of flying cars and emission-free aviation
• Past episode with Bloomberg NEF’s Colin McKerracher on why China has been successful in the EV transition where others haven’t been
• Past bonus episode with Bloomberg NEF’s Colin McKerracher on electrifying vans, trucks, and buses.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Brendan Newnam, Anna Mazarakis and Alicia Clanton. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Depending on who you ask, AI is either going to save the world or end it. The technology’s capacity for data-crunching and problem-saving can help predict weather events, making it easier to optimize power grids, prepare for natural disasters, and maximize crop output. But artificial intelligence is also energy intensive – and easy to apply to ethically questionable ends. For all of these reasons, Priya Donti, professor of electrical engineering and AI at MIT, decided to found Climate Change AI, a group dedicated to applying AI to tackle climate problems.  

Donti tells Akshat Rathi about some of the projects the group is funding around the world, and what the democratization of AI would look like in practice.  

Explore further:

• Past episode about Microsoft’s rising AI emissions, and President Brad Smith’s claim that the AI will do more good than harm
• Past episode with African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina about climate innovation projects across the African continent
• Past episode with climate scientist and  champion for developing countries Saleemul Huq

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Anna Mazarakis and Alicia Clanton. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Microsoft’s recent push to capitalize on artificial intelligence has made it the world’s most valuable company. But according to new figures, that ambition is coming  at the expense of its climate goals. In 2020, the company pledged to be carbon-negative by the end of the decade. Instead, its emissions rose 30% between 2020 and 2023. Microsoft President Brad Smith says the company isn’t giving up on its green goals — and that the good AI can do for the world will outweigh its environmental impact. 

Akshat tells Zero producer Mythili Rao about his conversation with Smith, and how other tech giants will be making similar calculations.

Explore further:

• Past episode  with BNEF’s Jenny Chase on how to triple renewable energy by 2030
• Past episode with Notre Dame professor Emily Grubert about the possibility of carbon capture
• Past episode with Electra CEO Sandeep Nijhawan on making zero emissions steel

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Dina Bass, and Alicia Clanton. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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After 14 years as a member of Parliament for the UK’s Conservative Party, Chris Skidmore quit the government in January — an act of protest over Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to allow new oil and gas licenses. Skidmore says the party has lost its way when it comes to climate issues, costing the UK lives, jobs and opportunities for economic growth. In this episode, Skidmore also discusses the Net Zero Review he published while in office, and talks through climate solutions emerging outside of Westminster. 

Explore further:

• Past episode with Chris Stark of the UK’s Climate Change Committee about whether the era of climate consensus is over 
• Past episode with Bryony Worthington, one of the authors of the UK’s Climate Change Act 
• Past episode with three US governors– Republican and Democrat– about how they  navigate partisan politics and the need for climate action. 

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim and Alicia Clanton. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Five years ago, the Green Party celebrated its best-ever results in European elections, ushering in a new era of legislative progress But Covid-19, inflation, supply chain woes and Russia’s war in Ukraine stalled its ambitions. Now, in the face of lagging poll numbers, Dutch Member of European Parliament Bas Eickhout is trying to convince voters that the party’s vision of an equal and ecological Europe is still relevant – and isn’t too costly. 

Explore further:

• Past episode with Daniel Fiorino on the challenge of democratic consensus-building when it comes to prioritizing climate policy
• Past episode exploring the government interventions that allowed Danish fossil fuel giant Orsted to become the world's largest developer of wind power
• Past episode with Europe's top industrialist Jim Hagemann Snabe on helping industrial behemoths reach climate goals

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Alicia Clanton and John Ainger. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Africa currently loses between $7 billion and $15 billion a year because of climate change. If that trend continues, the sum could reach $50 billion by 2030. But African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina sees a way forward. He describes the financial instruments the bank is using to encourage investors to fund green development projects across the continent. Adesina talks about making climate investments more attractive globally, and unpacks the projects the bank is already funding – from solar panels in the Sahel to a hydroelectric dam in Mozambique. 

Explore further:

• Past episode with Avinash Persaud on simplifying the complexities of climate finance
• Past episode exploring how Brookfield Asset Management is making renewables profitable all around the world
• Past episode discussing how to get big money to invest in projects that help people adapt to a world that's already hotter than ever before

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Mythili Rao, Magnus Henriksen, and Oscar Boyd. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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This week on Zero, reporter Akshat Rathi sits down with Renee Salas, an emergency medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and a leading expert on the health impacts of global warming. The intersection of health and climate change is a growing area of research, and an increasingly urgent one: Heat deaths among seniors, for example, are projected to increase 370% by mid-century.  But even the young and relatively healthy are at risk. “The take-home I want everyone to go away with is that we all are at risk for this,” Salas says, “especially as we get into more and more extreme conditions.”

Explore further:

• Past episode with climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe about how higher temperatures results in “global weirding”
• Past episode with John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather: A True Story from A Hotter World
• Past episode with Eleni Myrivili, Global Chief Heat Officer at UN-Habitat about designing cities to face extreme heat

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Matthew Griffin, and Jessica Beck. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Denmark’s Vestas has been making wind turbines exclusively since 1989 — well before the notion of an energy transition was commonplace. But that foresight hasn’t made for smooth sailing: When Henrik Andersen joined Vestas in 2013 as a board member, the company was deep in debt and shareholders were worried. A decade later, Andersen is CEO and has pulled Vestas out of trouble yet again, just as wind power is starting to play a critical role in the global energy transition. Andersen describes some of the government policies that have hindered or helped the growth of this sector, and describes the innovations making wind harvesting even more efficient. 

Explore further:

• Listen to last week’s episode on the wind industry’s struggle and how one big player remains bullish.
• Read about how the wind industry is breaking free of European bureaucracy.
• Listen to an earlier episode on how to make the renewable energy industry profitable in developed and developing countries.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Mythili Rao, Sommer Saadi and Magnus Henriksson. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim and Will Mathis. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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If you've paid much attention to the wind industry lately, the news isn’t great. Building new projects is getting more expensive and getting government permission to do it is taking longer than ever. Even major players like Orsted, Vestas and Siemens are struggling. 

But it's not all negative — there are still big players winning in wind. One of them is Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. This week, Bloomberg Green senior reporter Akshat Rathi speaks with CIP founder and managing partner Jakob Baruël Poulsen to understand how the industry is dealing with its many challenges, why CIP is still profitable and what will be needed for wind deployment to keep pace with climate goals. 

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Tiffany Tsoi, Sommer Saadi and Magnus Henriksson. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim and Will Mathis. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Clean energy technologies saw a record influx of investment last year: $1.7 trillion in total. But that still falls short of what’s needed to meet climate goals. With venture capital investment now falling, it’s increasingly difficult for startups to gain traction. 

Claire Curry, global head of technology, industry & innovation at BloombergNEF, follows the journeys of many young companies in the clean-tech space. On this week’s Zero, Curry tells Akshat Rathi about the kinds of innovative pathways that have proven successful. LanzaTech, for example, a nine-year-old carbon recycling technology company, works with Chinese steel companies looking for low-emissions solutions. H2 Green Steel also scaled quickly, in part through agreements reached with Mercedes Benz, IKEA and other big brands looking to access low-carbon steel. Curry explains how these approaches could be replicated by other startups.

• Listen to Zero’s episode about green-iron startup Electra.
• Listen to Switched On’s episodes on clean-energy investments and plastic recycling.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Mythili Rao, Magnus Henriksson, and Sommer Saadi. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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When the UK’s Climate Change Committee was formed in 2008, it both signaled the country’s seriousness about its environmental goals and gave other nations a template for setting their own climate policy. More recently, though, the UK appears to be backpedaling: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has approved new oil and gas licenses and pushed back a ban on fossil fuel cars. To understand how we got to this contentious moment, and how the UK can reclaim leadership, Zero host Akshat Rathi sat down with the CCC’s chief executive, Chris Stark. 

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Mythili Rao, Sommer Saadi and Magnus Henriksson. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim and Jessica Nix. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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The plastic problem is everywhere: in our oceans, communities, even inside our bodies. Plastic is abundant and very cheap, and the amount we produce is expected to triple by 2060 from 430 million tons a year to 1.2 billion tons, according to the OECD. The large amount of plastic could produce four billion tons of greenhouse gases, so a fix is becoming increasingly necessary. This week, Bloomberg Green senior reporter Akshat Rathi sat down with Inger Andersen, head of the UN’s Environment Program, to talk about an upcoming treaty that tackles increasing levels of plastic. You can read the transcript of this conversation here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim, Leslie Kaufman and Tiffany Tsoi. Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon.

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When Brookfield Asset Management launched a $15 billion fund to expand clean energy in 2021, it was the largest private fund of its kind in the world. Now Brookfield is starting a second fund with billions from Alterra, which is backed by the United Arab Emirates. Zero host Akshat Rathi sat down with Brookfield Renewable Partners CEO Connor Teskey to talk about making climate finance work. You can read the transcript of the conversation here. 

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Tiffany Tsoi, Sommer Saadi and Magnus Henriksson. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim and Jessica Nix. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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It is now cheaper to save the world than destroy it. But is capitalism up to the challenge of preventing the climate crisis? 

In his new book Climate Capitalism, Zero host Akshat Rathi introduces a dozen people who are already steering capitalism to solve the climate crisis: from the engineer who shaped China's electric car policies and the politician who helped make net-zero a UK law to the CEO who fought off a takeover attempt so he could stick with a sustainability strategy. Akshat argues that not only is capitalism capable of taking on the climate crisis, but harnessing it is the only way to solve the climate crisis in the time we have available. 

And yet while some improvements have been made over the past few years, the world is off track to meet its 2050 climate targets. So today on Zero, Bloomberg’s Greener Living editor Kira Bindrim sits down with Akshat to discuss his new book, and asks him: If climate capitalism is so doable, why does it seem so difficult? 

Read more: 

• Order Akshat’s new book, Climate Capitalism
• Listen to the interview with Fatih Birol that Akshat mentions 
• Hear Akshat and Kira talk about the reality of carbon footprints
• Read a transcript of this episode

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Anna Mazarakis, Gilda di Carli and Kira Bindrim. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit bloomberg.com/green. 

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John Kerry is the Forrest Gump of climate. The guy you’ll find at every important turn in history doing something impactful. For the last three years, he has been the US special presidential envoy for climate and tasked with restoring the US’s global credibility on climate action. In a conversation with Akshat Rathi, Kerry reflects on those efforts, his frustrations and what still keeps him going at 80.

Read Bloomberg Green's feature looking at Kerry's work in the envoy role.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Tiffany Tsoi, Sommer Saadi and Magnus Henriksson. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim and Jen Dlouhy. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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The Deal, hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, features intimate conversations with business titans, sports champions and game-changing entrepreneurs who reveal their investment philosophies, pivotal career moves and the ones that got away. From Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals, The Deal is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Bloomberg Carplay, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch The Deal on Bloomberg Television, and Bloomberg Originals on YouTube.

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Upgrading the grid for a net-zero world isn’t just a matter of building new infrastructure. Yes, miles of additional cables will be needed, as will more transformers, more substations and more engineers and technicians. But plenty of existing technology will also need to be updated. On the third episode of Zero’s grid series, TS Conductor founder Jason Huang discusses the material science breakthroughs that have enabled his company to create cables that have twice the conductivity of existing cables — and just as much strength. 

Explore further:

• Past episode with grid expert Sanjeet Sanghera about the global challenge of updating the grid
• Past episode with Scottish Power CEO Keith Anderson about the kinds of government interventions that can speed the march to electrification 
• Past episode with Bill Gates about the tech startup investment landscape

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Matthew Griffin, and Jessica Beck. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Tom Steyer is a hedge-fund billionaire who made his money investing in distressed assets, including fossil fuel projects. He’s also an avowed climate activist and a major donor to US politicians seeking to tackle climate change. After a short-lived run for president, Steyer in 2021 set up Galvanize Climate Solutions, a firm that invests in companies and technologies promising emissions reductions this decade. It recently raised $1 billion. 

Zero host Akshat Rathi spoke with Steyer at COP28 in December, to ask why he got out of fossil fuels, the consequences of bad carbon accounting, and what the return of Donald Trump would mean for global climate ambitions. 

Read more: 

• Tom Steyer Launches New Climate Tech Investment Fund With $1 Billion - Bloomberg
• Greening US Apartments Is New Project of Billionaire Tom Steyer - Bloomberg  

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim, Tiffany Tsoi. Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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This January, Davos will once again host the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting and bring together the world's business and political elite. In recent years, climate change has climbed ever further up the agenda at this high-altitude event. How did it happen? Akshat Rathi talks to Gail Whiteman, one person responsible for it. Gail is the founder of the Arctic Basecamp, and since 2017 has camped out for the week of Davos to deliver the urgent message about climate risks and the immense dangers it poses to the world economy.

Read more about the state of snow in Davos and why the business elite are starting to care.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Are fossil fuel companies needed in a clean energy future? Is the UK really backsliding on climate progress? And how can you find out more about solar? In the last episode of Zero for 2024, host Akshat Rathi and producers Oscar Boyd and Christine Driscoll talk about some of their favorite statistics that show people taking action on the climate crisis.

Read more: 

• World Energy Employment 2023 – Analysis - IEA 
• Annual North Sea oil and gas licences - Energy Live News
• The Godfather of Solar Predicts Its Future - Bloomberg
• How to Quit Your Job for the Climate
• How to Crisis-Proof Climate Action

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim. Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit bloomberg.com/green.

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Today we're sharing an episode from another climate podcast that you might like, Drilled. Zero’s host Akshat Rathi was a guest on Drilled earlier this year talking about his book, Climate Capitalism, and we’re dropping that episode in the feed today. If you like what you hear you can follow Drilled wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Today we’re sharing an episode from another climate podcast that you might like. It’s The Anti-Dread Climate Podcast from KCRW. If you like what you hear, check them out wherever you get podcasts. 

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