Zero: The Climate Race

Zero is on a break this week, so we’re bringing you an episode from Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast.

Hosts Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal speak with Justin Mankin, professor of geography at Dartmouth College and director of the Climate Modelling and Impacts Group, about the enormous impacts El Niño could have on the global economy. This episode was originally recorded in August, but with El Niño already roiling industries and continuing to strengthen, it feels as relevant as ever. If you'd like to read the latest news on El Niño, check out this article from Bloomberg Green’s Eric Roston.

Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter: bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots
Join the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots

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Zero is on a break this week, so we’re bringing you an episode from the Bloomberg Australia podcast. A shipyard in Tasmania has delivered the world’s largest electric ship, a 130-metre ferry powered by more than 250 tons of batteries. Host Rebecca Jones talks to David Stringer, Asia Managing Editor for Bloomberg Green and ESG, who toured the vessel and met veteran shipbuilder Robert Clifford. They explore what Tasmania’s maritime innovation could mean for an industry under pressure to cut emissions.

Vote for Zero in the Signal Podcast Awards:

We’re excited to announce that Zero has been selected as a finalist for the Signal Podcast Awards in the Sustainability & Environment category. Now we need your vote to help us win. Vote for Zero at https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/shows/genre/sustainability-environment. Thank you.

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China is a hotbed of innovation, filling nearly half of the world’s new patents every year. Much of that work is in the world of clean tech and a whole ecosystem is growing to help make these breakthroughs commercial. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi is joined by Tonny Xie, chairman of Bluetech Clean Air Alliance, a China-based nonprofit organization that’s helping to grow the next era of climate startups. 

Read more: 

• Bluetech Clean Air Alliance website
• Zero: Inside China’s $7 Trillion Green Finance Market 

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Lili Pike, Sommer Saadi and Alyssa McDonald. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Miatta Fahnbulleh, the UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, discusses the country's energy transition, the push for affordable and secure power and the UK’s role in the global climate action with Bloomberg's Aaron Rutkoff at Bloomberg Green New York 2026.

Watch the video of this conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdgTzMIgS9g

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How to make electricity cheap is a question that’s bedeviling policy makers around the world, particularly in the US and Europe. Some countries, however, have figured it out, including Iceland, Norway and China. So how do we get to that point? And what is the role of government versus the role of technology? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi is joined by Arthur Downing, author of Power and the People, to discuss how to build an electrostate.

Explore further:

• Read Arthur’s Substack: https://energynetworks.substack.com/
• Find a copy of Arthur’s book: https://amzn.eu/d/0dSrRHty 

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Sommer Saadi and Alyssa McDonald. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When it comes to green tech, China is a list of superlatives. It produces more solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and batteries than anywhere else in the world. But is finance the real climate hero? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi is joined by Ma Jun, chairman of the Hong Kong Green Finance Association and former chief economist of China’s central bank. They discuss how the country became a green-finance superpower and how other nations can speed up their own transitions. 

Explore further:

• The Hong Kong Green Finance Association website 
• China’s $6.8 Trillion Green Finance Boom Seen Advancing Further - Bloomberg

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Sommer Saadi and Alyssa McDonald. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Climber Alex Honnold is best known as the star of Free Solo, an Oscar-winning documentary that followed his rope-free ascent of the 3,000-foot (1,000-meter) face of Yosemite’s El Capitan. But he has also established the Honnold Foundation to bring solar power to those who most need it. This week on Zero, Bloomberg’s Akshat Rathi asks Honnold how he gets big things done and why helping communities get clean energy has become his other passion in life.

Explore further:

• Honnold Foundation website
• Alex Honnold's website
• Free Solo trailer

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Sommer Saadi and Alyssa McDonald. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Energy consumers are used to a pretty simple transaction with utility companies: get electricity to power your home, pay up every month. Now, more consumers are stockpiling their own energy using solar panels and batteries. And some are even making money by selling that energy back to the grid. On last week's Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder talked with Zero host Akshat Rathi about a new class of at-home energy trader that’s vibe coding its way to daily energy savings and big profits.

Read the full feature story here.

Find all episodes of The Big Take podcast here.

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On the morning of August 26, a glacial collapse in the Himalayas triggered a flash flood that sent ice, mud, rocks and fast-moving water through a valley in Nepal, wiping out entire communities. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi is joined by Lou Del Bello, who has been reporting on the disaster for Bloomberg News from New Delhi. They discuss what can be done to keep mountain communities safe, and why events like this are likely to become more frequent in a warming world.

Explore further:

• Nepal Races to Find Missing Amid Threats of Further Flooding 
• What Caused Nepal’s Deadly Flash Flood? Here’s What We Know
• Nepal: The World's Mountains Are Ticking Time Bombs - Bloomberg
• A Building Boom in the Himalayas Threatens Climate Disasters
• The Swiss Alps Reckon With the Threat of Collapsing Glaciers
• Sound of the week: CRYING GLACIER - The inner sounds of a glacier

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Sommer Saadi, Laura Millan and Alyssa McDonald. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Extreme weather events this year are starting to hurt food production in serious ways, which is likely to push up everyone’s food prices. That’s before the weather-wrecking super El Niño has really kicked in. So how do we build a food system that is more resilient, more secure and has lower emissions? Paul Behrens, British Academy Global Professor at the Oxford Martin School, joins Akshat Rathi on Zero to discuss.

Explore further:

• The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: https://drpaulbehrens.com/books/
• Mingfang Ting on Zero: Is the World Prepared for Super El Niño?
• George Monbiot on Zero: The Food System Needs a Radical Rethink

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Sommer Saadi and Alyssa McDonald. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.