Zero: The Climate Race

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As COP16 resumes in Rome, biodiversity funding is on the line Feb 20, 2025

Show notes

Last October, delegates from around the world met in Cali, Colombia to discuss ways to protect the planet’s biodiversity. After a promising breakthrough in Montreal, Canada three years ago, there were high hopes for that summit. But COP16 closed in shambles, with negotiators leaving before a final agreement could be achieved on key issues. Now, the summit is resuming next week in Rome. Will developed and developing countries be able to reach consensus? Reporter Natasha White, who attended part one in Cali, tells Akshat Rathi what she expects to see when COP16 reconvenes next week in Italy.

Explore further:

Past episode about COP30’s final deal
Past episode with sci fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson about the merits of the COP process
Past episode with Stripe’s Nan Ransohoff about the carbon removal credit market
Bloomberg Green reporting from Natasha White

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

Green growth is expensive. The global economy can afford it. Feb 13, 2025

Show notes

How do we keep climate action alive in a fracturing world? “Today we live in an age where we actually have the solutions– technologically, economically, financially speaking– but what we are not doing is acting on them,” Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Development Program tells Akshat Rathi. In a conversation recorded at COP29, Steiner talked about how some countries– including Uruguay, India, Kenya, China, and Bhutan– are moving forward with innovative climate solutions even when international financing isn’t readily available. He also called on the developed world to find better ways to fund sustainable development.

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Past episode with climate finance expert Avinash Persaud about getting money to the places that need it
Past episode with Achim Steiner about the role of the UN Development Program
Past episode with science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson about the role of the United Nations

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The UK’s £200 billion plan for carbon-free power by 2030 Feb 06, 2025

Show notes

The UK government has pledged to achieve 95% clean power by 2030. It's an ambitious, tough goal – and even tougher to accomplish while reducing energy prices. Chris Stark, head of the nation’s Mission Control for Clean Power, says he’s “confident” the UK can deliver. But at the same time, the Labour government’s leaders are sending mixed signals on climate: They want to expand airports and may sign off on new oil fields in the North Sea. Stark tells Akshat Rathi why he’s still certain the country can balance its carbon budget, and why it’s important for politicians to show that green investments have economic benefits too. This episode was recorded at the Energy Transition Acceleration Forum curated by The Carbon Trust.

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Past episode with Chris Stark on his role at the Climate Change Committee
Past episode about what happens to the energy transition as the US leaves the Paris Agreement
Past episode with Scottish Power CEO Keith Anderson about grid readiness

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Will Mathis, Sharon Chen, Eamon Farhat, and Jessica Beck. 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.

What happens to the energy transition with the US exiting the Paris Agreement? Jan 30, 2025

Show notes

With President Donald Trump back in office, the US is leaving the Paris Agreement for the second time. Unlike in 2017, this withdrawal is set to have more lasting consequences, Akshat Rathi tells producer Mythili Rao. Meanwhile, even as the US gives up its climate leadership, China’s focus on clean energy is growing. A new report from BloombergNEF finds that global investment in the energy transition surpassed $2 trillion for the first time in 2024, with China driving two thirds of year-on-year growth. BNEF Deputy CEO Albert Cheung shares the report’s highlights, and reflects on the role international competition will play in this next phase of reaching net zero.

Explore further:

Bloomberg Green's story The Global Climate Order Teeters Under Second Assault by Trump
Bloomberg NEF’s energy transition investment trends 2025 report
Reporter Zahra Hirji's roundup of the first slew of President Trump's climate moves
Past episode with Yale historian Paul Sabin about what to expect in President Trump’s second term

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Sharon Chen, Alfred Cang, Ewa Krukowska, John Ainger, Jen Dlouhy, Zahra Hirji, Lou Del Bello, Simone Iglesias, Amanda Hurley and Jessica Beck. 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.

Best of: COP30 president on how Brazil is looking to supercharge climate action Jan 27, 2025

Show notes

Plans are already underway for COP30 to pick up the baton and tackle COP29's unfinished business. The 2025 climate conference is set to take place in Belem, Brazil, a gateway to the Amazon rainforest. And last week, André Corrêa do Lago was named COP30 president. Corrêa do Lago currently serves as Brazil’s Secretary for Climate, Energy and the Environment, and he spoke with Akshat Rathi at COP29 in Baku, in November. He says that although holding a global summit in Belem poses logistical challenges, the symbolism of the location holds “fantastic political power.”

Explore further:

Bloomberg Green reporter Simone Iglesias's story on Corrêa do Lago's plans as COP30 President
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

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To understand Trump's climate moves in his second term, look to the Reagan years Jan 23, 2025

Show notes

As Donald Trump returns to the White House, Akshat Rathi speaks to Yale historian Paul Sabin about whether recent presidential history might hold some lessons on what to expect from the Trump administration’s approach to energy and environmental policy this term. Looking back at the Carter and Reagan years, Sabin explores how present-day Trump priorities– from dismantling government agencies to ramping up oil and gas production–have historical precedent. And Jonathan Lash, who was an environmental lawyer in the Reagan years, explains why he’s feeling déjà vu in these early days of Trump’s second term.

Explore further:

Past episode with sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson about his visions for climate politics in 2025
Past episode with President Biden’s climate czar Ali Zaidi on the IRA’s legacy
Past episode with Congressman Ro Khanna on what Trump’s second term may hold

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

Will the LA fires unleash a wave of climate migrants? Jan 16, 2025

Show notes

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Odd Lots: This is how China builds so much nuclear power Jan 13, 2025

Show notes

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.

If 1.5C is dead, what happens next? Jan 09, 2025

Show notes

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kim Stanley Robinson imagines utopia in 2025 Jan 02, 2025

Show notes

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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