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 pat...
Apr 11, 2024•31 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast 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 t...
Apr 04, 2024•35 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Mar 28, 2024•26 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast 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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mar 26, 2024•1 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 produce...
Mar 21, 2024•36 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast 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 tha...
Mar 12, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 productio...
Mar 04, 2024•31 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ....
Feb 29, 2024•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Dec...
Jan 18, 2024•31 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Jan 11, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Dec 28, 2023•18 min•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast 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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 26, 2023•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 19, 2023•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bloomberg News Now is a comprehensive audio report on today's top stories. Listen for the latest news, whenever you want it, covering global business stories around the world. on Apple: trib.al/Mx9TCh1 on Spotify: trib.al/T4BG8s4 Anywhere: trib.al/O4EX6BA See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 18, 2023•51 sec•Transcript available on Metacast COP28 comes to a close. 200 countries came together, 100,000 people flew in, and what did they produce? A piece of text. But sometimes that piece of text can have real world consequences. In this week’s episode Akshat speaks with producer Oscar Boyd about what is in the final COP28 text and the significance of agreeing to transition off of fossil fuels. Read More: COP28 Nations Reach First-Ever Deal to Move Away From Fossil Fuels Climate Fight Takes Aim at Food in First Ever Net-Zero Plan Sign u...
Dec 13, 2023•21 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast Four billion people live in countries where climate change-related disasters are becoming more severe and frequent. Spending money to adapt, known as “climate adaptation finance” is a fraught topic. Who will pay for those adaptations and how, as well as a global goal on adaptation are all being discussed at COP28. To find out more, Akshat speaks with Patrick Verkooijen, head of the Global Center on Adaptation about the history of climate adaptation finance, what negotiations are taking place, an...
Dec 11, 2023•30 min•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast Former US Vice President Al Gore has been going to COP summits since the beginning. But he’s much more than a COP-goer. Many of today’s climate activists say that Gore’s climate documentary An Inconvenient Truth was the reason they became activists. The movie won an Academy Award in 2007 and also bagged him that year’s Nobel Peace Prize alongside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Gore has become the de facto spokesman for climate change. In recent years and especially before COP28, ...
Dec 06, 2023•44 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast Tripling renewables is one of the goals the COP28 discussions are circling around. It sounds good, but what will meeting it actually entail? Jenny Chase of BloombergNEF joins Akshat to break down where more investments are needed and why decarbonizing energy is the easy part. Listen to our previous episode with Jenny Chase on solar's explosive growth Sign up to the Green newsletter Fill out Bloomberg Green's climate anxiety survey Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Bo...
Dec 04, 2023•26 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast Today is the start of COP28. And for the next two weeks, Zero will be in the United Arab Emirates, along with more than 70,000 people who will come for the year’s biggest climate conference. These are set to be difficult negotiations. Getting every single country to agree to one common text is a gargantuan task. So for this first episode from COP, we wanted to hear from someone who’s been on the inside; someone who has helped forge global climate agreements from the ashes of broken diplomacy. Ch...
Nov 29, 2023•31 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast Trillions of dollars are needed to shift the world to a low-carbon future, but where will all that money come from? While momentum is growing in rich countries, developing countries are still struggling for finance. Without significant increases in the amount of money spent, the world is unlikely to meet its climate goals, and yet international negotiations are at a deadlock. Avinash Persaud has a plan: the Bridgetown Agenda. He’s the special envoy on investment and financial services for Barbad...
Nov 27, 2023•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast The UN Climate Conference COP28 starts next week. Before Akshat heads to the conference he’s joined by Aaron Rutkoff, the editor of Bloomberg Green, to talk about what COP’s current controversial president Sultan Al Jaber has accomplished so far and what he must achieve. They also decode COP jargon like “orderly decline,” discuss the stakes for the UAE’s biggest diplomatic exercise and expectations for the final communiqué. Listen to related episodes: Carbon removal's magic number Big promise, l...
Nov 23, 2023•27 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast By 2025, China’s battery production capacity will be three times as much as the rest of the world combined. Why was it able to take such a commanding lead? Listen to an extract from Akshat Rathi’s new book Climate Capitalism to find out. Read more: How China Left the World Far Behind in the Battery Race - Bloomberg Read Climate Capitalism Fill out Bloomberg Green's climate anxiety survey Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Dris...
Nov 20, 2023•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast If reducing emissions from industry is the first step for carbon capture, then drawing down excess CO2 to reverse climate change is the next. This week Akshat speaks to Dr. Jennifer Wilcox, head of the US Department of Energy’s office that is funding two gigantic carbon removal hubs and many small demonstration projects. They talk about why carbon removal is so complicated, crucial, and hitting the magic number $100. This is the second in a two part series about carbon management. Listen to the ...
Nov 16, 2023•27 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast You may not know Jim Hagemann Snabe by name, but he has been called Europe’s top industrialist. Snabe has held leadership positions at some of the world’s biggest companies like Maersk and Siemens. He is now a chairperson of Northvolt, Europe’s largest battery manufacturer with 4,000 employees, $55B worth of orders and the competitive edge of greener batteries. Akshat spoke with Jim Snabe at the Bloomberg Tech Summit in London about how industrial behemoths like Maersk and Siemens can meet clima...
Nov 14, 2023•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast At Bloomberg, we’re always talking about the biggest business stories, and no one is bigger than Elon Musk. In this new chat weekly show, host David Papadopoulos and a panel of guests including Businessweek’s Max Chafkin, Tesla reporter Dana Hull, Big Tech editor Sarah Frier, and more, will break down the most important stories on Musk and his empire. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Nov 10, 2023•43 sec•Transcript available on Metacast The U.S. is spending billions on carbon capture as a climate solution, but is it realistic? The method has been around for 50 years and used primarily as a way to extract more oil. To find out how and if carbon capture can work as a climate solution, Akshat speaks with Emily Grubert, a professor at Notre Dame about what tech demonstrations have actually demonstrated and where this precious resource should be deployed. This is the first in a two part series about carbon management. Read More Occi...
Nov 09, 2023•35 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast Saleemul Huq was a pre-eminent climate scientist and champion for developing countries. For many years, he was a lone warrior trying to bring the issues of adaptation and loss and damage to the UN negotiating table. His death last weekend caused an outpouring of emotion across the climate world. Ahead of COP28, Zero hears from some of Saleemul’s colleagues about his life, legacy and the hole he leaves behind in climate diplomacy. Read more: Saleemul Huq's obituary Saleemul Huq and Farhana Sultan...
Nov 02, 2023•32 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast This week, the International Energy Agency published its flagship report: The World Energy Outlook. It's hundreds of pages long and makes some bold claims. It says in the year 2030, there will be 10 times as many electric cars on the road as today, 80% of all new power generation will be solar or wind, and demand for fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – will have peaked. The report is dominating climate news because what the IEA says makes a big difference to how governments tweak their energy pol...
Oct 26, 2023•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Cars are only half the electric vehicle story. There are also billions of two and three wheelers that need to be electrified, as well as bigger vehicles like vans, trucks and buses. In this bonus episode of Zero, we’re joined again by Colin McKerracher, BloombergNEF’s head of advanced transport, to look beyond electric cars and hear how electrification is going for other forms of road transport. Are batteries still the answer? Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd a...
Oct 22, 2023•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Peak oil is here, or is it? Depends on how you measure, but at least one person is sure crude isn’t coming back. This week Akshat speaks with Bloomberg Opinion columnist David Fickling about why he thinks the world has reached peak crude oil demand, what comes next, and what it all has to do with the American soap opera Dallas. Read more David’s original article: Peak Oil Has Finally Arrived. No, Really Not everyone agrees: The Harsh Truth: We're Using More Oil Than Ever Latest IEA forecasts: Gl...
Oct 19, 2023•39 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast 
