Zero: The Climate Race

This week, we hear from you. Bloomberg Green’s Akshat Rathi answers questions from Zero listeners: Can a decline in trade help fight climate change? How do we tell if corporations are greenwashing or not? And are we about to enter a new era of global collaboration when it comes to green tech? If you have a question for the show, send us a voice note or message to [email protected].

Explore further:

• Brazil's Amazonian Leaders Deliver Dark Message on Gold Mining to London 
• Nigeria's Solar Gamble Forces Millions in Lagos to Unplug From Dirty Generators
• Green Growth Is Expensive. The Global Economy Can Afford It

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Siobhan Wagner, Sommer Saadi and Mohsis Andam. 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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Nearly half a million people die every year as a result of extreme heat. That’s more than the total from hurricanes, earthquakes and floods combined. And as the planet warms, the risk of deadly heat is increasing.

On Bloomberg's Big Take podcast, climate reporter Zahra Hirji brings Sarah Holder a dispatch from a lab at the forefront of understanding how heat affects the human body. They break down the latest science on deadly heat, why everyone is at more risk than they realize — and what actually works to mitigate those risks.

Read more:

• Scientist Shuts Himself in 104F Chamber in Quest to Study Heat Stress
• Listen to more from the Big Take podcast: https://www.bloomberg.com/audio

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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.

This episode was originally broadcast in January 2025.

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.

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In April, Spain suffered a nationwide blackout that lasted nearly a full day. It was a traumatic event for one of Europe’s fastest adopters of solar power, tripling capacity in just five years. The outage sparked a big question: Was solar to blame? And what will it take to avoid blackouts in the renewables era? Bloomberg Green’s Laura Millan joins Akshat Rathi on Zero to unpack the lessons from the Iberian Peninsula and the technologies that could make such blackouts a thing of the past.

Explore further:

• The Fix for Solar Power Blackouts Is Already Here
• Past episodes of the Bottlenecks Series 
  • The Green Transition Needs More Workers
  • There Aren’t Enough Cables to Meet Growing Electricity Demand
  • The One Device Throttling the World’s Electrified Future

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Siobhan Wagner, Sommer Saadi and Mohsis Andam. 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.

Electricity demand is soaring, and some think the answer isn’t building bigger, but smaller. That’s the idea behind small modular reactors (SMRs): take a large-scale nuclear plant that’s hard to build, and shrink it down to something that’s more manageable, cheaper and easier to replicate. Instead of one huge nuclear plant, you build 10 small ones. 

Right now these kinds of small modular reactors are in the startup phase, with only two in commercial operation in Russia and China. So how viable is the business for these small modular reactors? And will SMRs ever become a scaled up solution for our energy needs? Rachel Slaybaugh joins Akshat Rathi on Zero to discuss. 

Explore further:

• What Are Small Nuclear Reactors and How Do SMRs Help Solve Climate Change?
• Canada to Build $15 Billion Modular Nuclear Plant, First in G-7
• UK Selects Rolls-Royce to Build First Small Modular Reactors
• China is Home to World's First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Siobhan Wagner, Sommer Saadi and Mohsis Andam. 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.

Electricity demand is booming, and it’s not just because of artificial intelligence. So much so that many are ready to revisit the idea of nuclear power. Microsoft signed a $16 billion deal to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear plant to power their data centres for the next 20 years.

But developed countries haven’t built more than a handful of new reactors in decades. When they have tried, the cost of those nuclear plants and the time to build them has been extraordinary. Will this renewed interest yield different results? Nuclear scientist and partner at venture capital firm DCVC Rachel Slaybaugh joined Akshat Rathi on Zero to discuss how these new dreams of growing nuclear power can become a reality.

Explore further:

• Nuclear Fusion Is Unlimited Clean Power. So When Can We Have It?
• Long-Unloved Nuclear Power Is Staging a Comeback
• UK Inks Investment Deals on £38 Billion Nuclear Plant
• Three Mile Island's Nuclear Reboot Moves Into the Fast Lane in Win for Microsoft

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Siobhan Wagner, Sommer Saadi and Mohsis Andam. 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 2019, a group of law students from Pacific island nations set in motion a case that made it to the world’s highest court: The International Court of Justice. The students wanted answers to two important questions: what responsibility do countries have to stop climate change? And if countries don’t stop polluting, will they have to pay for the damages? Now the ICJ has delivered its verdict, and it seems like a huge win for the climate. But is it? Laura Clarke, chief executive officer of legal non-profit ClientEarth, joins Akshat Rathi on Zero to discuss.

Explore further:

• One Pacific Nation’s Court Case Opens New Era for Climate Lawsuits - Bloomberg
• UN Top Court Says Countries Are Obliged to Fight Climate Change - Bloomberg
• Heat Pump Sales Top Gas Boilers in Germany for the First Time - Bloomberg

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Siobhan Wagner, Sommer Saadi and Mohsis Andam. 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.

Everywhere you look, it seems like bad news for climate tech. Investments are down, the US government has cut incentives and startups are running out of cash. But venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is still bullish, even though the One Big Beautiful Bill cut an estimated $500 billion in green spending. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi speaks with Khosla to find out when we can expect to see fusion, whether he’s reconsidering investing in the US and why he still thinks the best clean tech is yet to come.

Explore further:

• Trump Immigration Policies Hit Climate Tech Talent Pipeline, Khosla Says
• Vinod Khosla Says ‘Fusion Will Be Real’ Within the Next Five Years
• From Brazil to Singapore, Manipulated Mosquitoes Fight Dengue - Bloomberg

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Brian Kahn, Michelle Ma, Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Jessica Beck, Siobhan Wagner, Meg Szabo, Abby Danzig and Krystal Contreras. 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 One Big Beautiful Bill Act cuts almost $500 billion in US clean-energy spending, just as the country was starting to get serious about its climate goals. Some say the country is acting like a petrostate, waging war against clean energy. Others are more sanguine and believe that the US will stay the course in the long term. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi is joined by Jigar Shah, a clean energy expert and former head of the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office, to make sense of the bill’s impacts, and whether it’s as bad for climate as it seems.

Explore more:

• Trump’s Tax Bill: A Guide to the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Congress Passed - Bloomberg
• Who Won and Lost in Trump’s Tax Bill
• Jigar Shah to Start Firm Advising Green Startups After DOE Run - Bloomberg
• Mont Blanc Mountain Climbing Under Threat Amid Global Warming - Bloomberg

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to: Jessica  Beck, Eleanor Harrison-Dengate, Sommer Saadi, Mohsis Andam and Siobhan Wagner. 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.

This week, we explore how the legislation’s attack on renewable energy may push up electricity bills and damage US competitiveness in AI.

The tax credits in President Joe Biden’s sprawling Inflation Reduction Act were introduced to help the US keep up with rising electricity demand by making clean power sources cheaper. But now the big bill has changed all that, and an executive order issued days after its passage suggests his war on renewables isn’t over yet.

Joining host Stephanie Flanders to discuss this dramatic turn of events are guests Ethan Zindler, head of country and policy research at BloombergNEF and previously climate counselor to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Bloomberg lobbying and influence reporter Emily Birnbaum.  

For more episodes of Trumponomics, subscribe on Apple or Spotify. 

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