Zero: The Climate Race

As the blazes in Los Angeles continue to burn, those who have lost their homes are contending with the immediate need for shelter– and difficult questions about whether or not to rebuild in the fire zone. Grist reporter Jake Bittle tells Akshat Rathi how California’s housing market and insurance regulations will shape the recovery. And Nomad Century author Gaia Vince says that in this era of climate instability, everyone should think about how prepared they are to become a climate migrant.

Explore further:

• Past episode about the 1.5C warming goal being surpassed
• Past episode with sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson about imagining the future role of the UN in fighting climate change
• Past episode about climate change, conflict, and migration
• Bloomberg Green story about the aircraft used to scoop water to fight fires in LA 

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Michelle Ma, Brian Kahn, Sharon Chen, and Sommer Saadi. 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.

In the US right now, there is a lot of talk about a so-called "nuclear revival," though it remains to be seen whether that translates into action. Meanwhile, China has built 37 nuclear reactors in the last decade, with even more in the works. So what does it take to build nuclear at scale? On this episode of the Odd Lots podcast, Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway speak to David Fishman, a China-based energy analyst at The Lantau Group. He explains all the elements of the country's nuclear success, from financing to manufacturing to its domestic power markets. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In December, Europe’s Copernicus weather service announced that it was “virtually certain” that 2024 would be the hottest year ever. What’s more, the global average temperature last year appears to have surpassed 1.5C for the first time, blowing past a threshold that’s taken on enormous significance in the fight against climate change. Does that mean governments, corporations, and activists recalibrate their climate goals? Akshat Rathi speaks with reporters Eric Roston and Zahra Hirji about what this new reality means.

Explore further:

• Past episode about sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson’s visions for 2025
• Past episode with Eric Roston and Katharine Hayhoe about the extreme weather events brought on by rising temperatures
• Past episode with the Berghof Foundation’s Andrew Gilmour about conflict and peace-building on a warming planet

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Sharon Chen, Siobhan Wagner, Ethan Steinberg, and Jessica Beck. 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.

Science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson imagines the future for a living. And the future is very much upon us. Robinson’s seminal 2020 novel Ministry for the Future opens in the year 2025. Robinson tells Akshat Rathi about how our real-life climate politics stack up against what he imagined for this era. They also discuss the dangers of science-fiction thinking in politics and why, for all his admiration of science and technology, Robinson remains so enamored with the unglamorous workings of a body like the United Nations.

Explore further:

• Past episode with Kim Stanley Robinson about climate utopias and optopias

• Past episode with outgoing White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi about what the next four years will hold

• Past episode with Colombia’s environment minister Susana Muhamad about the country’s commitment to fossil fuel nonproliferation 

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Sharon Chen, Siobhan Wagner, Ethan Steinberg, and Jessica Beck. 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.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Capitalism can be blamed for worsening the climate crisis, says journalist Akshat Rathi, but it can also be used to drive the solutions to fix it. In this episode of TED Talks Daily, recorded at the Bloomberg Green Festival in Seattle, Rathi discusses his book Climate Capitalism, and how the strategic use of market forces and government policies can make sustainability profitable.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Reporter Akshat Rathi speaks to Eric Toone of Breakthrough Energy Ventures about what’s hype and what’s not in the world of energy startups. Breakthrough is one of the world’s biggest funders of early stage climate technologies and has poured billions of dollars in more than 120 startups. Toone weighs in on everything from carbon removal to  the grid, nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, and green hydrogen.

Explore further:

• Past episode about Commonwealth Fusion System’s reactors
• Past episode about the drilling techniques employed by geothermal startup Fervo
• Past episode about the plethora of carbon capture startups
• Past episode about the energy startup trying to replace coal with a very cheap battery 
• Past episode about TS Conductor’s approach to reconductoring
• Past episode with Bill Gates about the areas of the energy sector he’s investing in

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Sharon Chen, Ethan Steinberg, and Jessica Beck. 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.

General Electric Co was officially founded in 1892, when several of inventor Thomas Edison's ventures were consolidated into one company. From then on, it was a behemoth. But now that’s changed: A break-up that began last year has concluded with GE splitting off into three separate companies. Scott Strazik is the CEO of GE Vernova, which focuses on wind turbines, nuclear power, and carbon capture, as well as grid solutions such as software and batteries. Strazik joins Zero to talk about how the company is in the "early innings of an investment super cycle," and how it intends to overcome difficulties in offshore wind. 

Explore further:

• Past episode about the grid and the march toward electrification
• Past episode about how Microsoft is squaring its AI growth with its carbon negative ambitions 
• Past episode with BloombergNEF’s Jenny Chase about the goal of tripling renewables by 2030

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Will Mathis, Siobhan Wagner, Monique Mulima, Ethan Steinberg, Blake Maples, and Jessica Beck. 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.

It went well past the official deadline, late into the night – but finally, COP29 ended with a deal. Hardly anyone felt victorious. Back from Baku, reporter Akshat Rathi tells producer Mythili Rao why the agreed on New Climate Quantified Goal of $300 billion made both developed and developing countries unhappy, and he shares what heads of state and ministers from Denmark to Mauritania and Indonesia to Israel had to tell Zero about this year’s conference.

Explore further:

• Past episode about COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev’s challenges in Baku
• Past episode about why climate finance fights were expected to dominate COP29
• Past episode with Brazil’s climate secretary about the country’s vision for COP30

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks to Siobhan Wagner, Sharon Chen, Jen Dlouhy, Alfred Cang, John Ainger, Natasha White, Will Kennedy, Rakteem Katakey, and Aaron Rutkoff. 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.

Plans are already underway for COP30 to pick up the baton-- and tackle COP29's unfinished business. Next year’s climate conference is set to take place in Belem, Brazil, a gateway to the Amazon rainforest. André Corrêa do Lago, Brazil’s Secretary for Climate, Energy and the Environment tells Akshat Rathi that although holding a global summit in Belem poses logistical challenges, the symbolism of the location holds “fantastic political power.” 

Explore further:

• Past episode about Azerbaijan’s challenges with hosting COP29 in Baku
• Past episode with Brazil's chief climate negotiator, Liliam Chagas, about the viability of a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty
• Past episode with ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, about his decision to attend COP29

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao.  Special thanks to Simone Iglesias, Siobhan Wagner, Ethan Steinberg, Blake Maples, and Jessica Beck. 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.