The Politics Guys

Can Capitalism Save the Planet?

05.01.2024 - By Michael BaranowskiPlay

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

As a cross-interview with Sustainable Planet, Kimberly Weir, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Northern Kentucky University and co-host of Sustainable Planet talks with Akshat Rathi, award-winning senior reporter for Bloomberg News and the host of Zero, a climate-solutions podcast for Bloomberg Green and author of Climate Capitalism: Winning the Race to Zero Emissions and Solving the Crisis of Our Age.

Topics Kimberly & Akshat discuss include:

How a misinformed campaign marketing slogan about ‘clean coal’ led Akshat into the year-long pursuit of uncovering the truth about climate technology

Why economists feel the way to address climate change is to put a price on carbon

How to achieve negative carbon emissions since zero emissions alone isn’t enough

Why, when it comes to electric cars, you’ve never heard of Wan Gang, though Elon Musk is a household name

Why the very industries that created lithium-ion batteries, solar cells, and carbon capture and storage are so resistant to employing that technology

How private capital from billionaires like Bill Gates and anyone with a 401K plan is a key part of pursuing climate technology

That climate justice is both ethically the right path but also reaps global economic benefits

The need to shift from ‘shareholder’ to ‘stakeholder’ if we’re going to meet the less-ambitious Paris Conference climate change goals 

Akshat Rathi on X

Listen to Part 2 of the interview on Sustainable Planet.

The Politics Guys on Facebook | X

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More episodes from The Politics Guys