Zero: The Climate Race

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How to build an electrostate Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

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.

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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 zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Inside China’s $7 trillion green finance market Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

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.

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

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Free Solo climber Alex Honnold's next mission: solar for everyone Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

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.

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Honnold Foundation website
Alex Honnold's website
Free Solo trailer

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Do-it-yourself energy traders are gaming the grid: Big Take Sep 07, 2026

Show notes

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.

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Find all episodes of The Big Take podcast here.

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Nepal disaster shows how mountains are becoming less stable Aug 31, 2026

Show notes

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.

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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 zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How to fix our vulnerable food system Aug 27, 2026

Show notes

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.

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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

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More than AI, this century’s growth story is climate action Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

It’s 20 years since the Stern Review declared that the costs of inaction on climate change are much higher than the costs of action. So why are emissions continuing to rise? Lord Nicholas Stern tells Bloomberg’s Akshat Rathi why he is optimistic about our ability to tackle climate change and what makes those actions the growth story of the 21st century.

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Read for free: The Growth Story of The 21st Century

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When climate change threatens national security Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

The impacts of climate change are becoming not just unignorable, but unbearable. Yet the political consensus around climate action is fracturing, as leaders debate the speed and scale of the changes needed. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi speaks with Caroline Lucas, the former head of the UK’s Green party and a member of parliament for 14 years, about the increasing threat climate change poses to national security, and what she’s learned from four decades at the frontline of climate politics.

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Caroline’s series for The Rest Is Politics
Zack Polanski on Zero
Dale Vince on Zero
Lieutenant General Richard Nugee on Zero

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Iran war revealed that China has a new energy weapon Aug 06, 2026

Show notes

The Middle East conflict is now in its fifth month, deepening the oil and gas supply shock. Early in the war, analysts worried that the oil price would rise to $200 a barrel, causing a global recession and widespread panic, but that didn’t happen. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi is joined by Bloomberg Opinion columnist Javier Blas to discuss why oil prices stayed around $100 per barrel and why the war is the start of a new paradigm in energy politics.

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When AI and climate anxieties collide to make beautiful stories: Imagine Series Jul 30, 2026

Show notes

How should we navigate a world in which anxieties about AI, climate change and capitalism collide? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi speaks with Helen Phillips, author of Hum and the second-ever winner of the Climate Fiction Prize. Rathi asks Phillips how she’s transformed her anxieties into captivating prose, how her relationship to technology has changed through writing and what humanity loses out on if we rely on AI too much.

Past episodes of Zero’s Imagine series: