Zero: The Climate Race

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Is COP28 the beginning of the end for the fossil fuel era? Dec 13, 2023

Show notes

COP28 comes to a close. 200 countries came together, 100,000 people flew in, and what did they produce? A piece of text. But sometimes that piece of text can have real world consequences. In this week’s episode Akshat speaks with producer Oscar Boyd about what is in the final COP28 text and the significance of agreeing to transition off of fossil fuels.
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Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim. Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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'Hey, nice sea wall': Finding trillions for adaptation Dec 11, 2023

Show notes

Four billion people live in countries where climate change-related disasters are becoming more severe and frequent. Spending money to adapt, known as “climate adaptation finance” is a fraught topic. Who will pay for those adaptations and how, as well as a global goal on adaptation are all being discussed at COP28. To find out more, Akshat speaks with Patrick Verkooijen, head of the Global Center on Adaptation about the history of climate adaptation finance, what negotiations are taking place, and why the money promised still hasn’t arrived.
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A quick Q&A with Patrick Verkooijen at COP28
A UN report shows that the climate adaptation gap is growing
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Al Gore plans to break the petrostate stranglehold on climate progress Dec 06, 2023

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Former US Vice President Al Gore has been going to COP summits since the beginning. But he’s much more than a COP-goer. Many of today’s climate activists say that Gore’s climate documentary An Inconvenient Truth was the reason they became activists. The movie won an Academy Award in 2007 and also bagged him that year’s Nobel Peace Prize alongside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Gore has become the de facto spokesman for climate change. In recent years and especially before COP28, he’s become much more vocal in calling out the villains. He has castigated the role of petrostates and oil companies who shape the COP agenda, saying they’ve “taken the disguise off” and are not good faith partners.

Bloomberg Green senior reporter Akshat Rathi spoke with Al Gore at the Bloomberg Green Summit at COP28 in Dubai to ask him how to break the stranglehold petrostates have over COP, why tackling climate change solves many other major problems, and why big emitters can no longer hide.

Al Gore Wants to Weaken Petrostates’ Power Over Global Climate Decisions — Bloomberg
Akshat Rathi's book of essays about climate activists inspired by Al Gore
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How to triple renewables by 2030 Dec 04, 2023

Show notes

Tripling renewables is one of the goals the COP28 discussions are circling around. It sounds good, but what will meeting it actually entail? Jenny Chase of BloombergNEF joins Akshat to break down where more investments are needed and why decarbonizing energy is the easy part.

Listen to our previous episode with Jenny Chase on solar's explosive growth
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Outrage and optimism in oil country Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

Today is the start of COP28. And for the next two weeks, Zero will be in the United Arab Emirates, along with more than 70,000 people who will come for the year’s biggest climate conference. These are set to be difficult negotiations. Getting every single country to agree to one common text is a gargantuan task. So for this first episode from COP, we wanted to hear from someone who’s been on the inside; someone who has helped forge global climate agreements from the ashes of broken diplomacy.

Christiana Figueres is the cohost of the podcast Outrage & Optimism, and was formerly the head of the UNFCCC, the body tasked with running COP meetings. She took over the role at a low point in global climate negotiations in 2010 and her efforts culminated in the signing of the Paris agreement in 2015.

Now, the world is way off track to meet that goal. So we wanted to hear from Christiana about what can be expected from COP28, the role the fossil fuel industry plays in negotiations, and whether the climate summit is still fit for purpose.

Listen to Christiana's podcast, Outrage and Optimism
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Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kate Mackenzie and Kira Bindrim. 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: We need trillions to fix the climate. Finally there’s a serious plan. Nov 27, 2023

Show notes

Trillions of dollars are needed to shift the world to a low-carbon future, but where will all that money come from? While momentum is growing in rich countries, developing countries are still struggling for finance. Without significant increases in the amount of money spent, the world is unlikely to meet its climate goals, and yet international negotiations are at a deadlock.

Avinash Persaud has a plan: the Bridgetown Agenda. He’s the special envoy on investment and financial services for Barbados and is working with his country’s prime minister, Mia Mottley, to transform the global financial system. Together they are putting pressure on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to turbocharge the roll-out of clean technologies in developing countries.

This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi sits down with Avinash to discuss his plan, and why he thinks now is the time these aging financial institutions can finally be reformed.

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A deep dive on the Bridgetown Agenda
Mia Mottley’s full speech at COP27
Making polluters pay for loss and damage
Cheaper currency risk hedging could unlock trillions
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Can an oil exec successfully lead COP28? Nov 23, 2023

Show notes

The UN Climate Conference COP28 starts next week. Before Akshat heads to the conference he’s joined by Aaron Rutkoff, the editor of Bloomberg Green, to talk about what COP’s current controversial president Sultan Al Jaber has accomplished so far and what he must achieve. They also decode COP jargon like “orderly decline,” discuss the stakes for the UAE’s biggest diplomatic exercise and expectations for the final communiqué.

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Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Stacey Wong and Kira Bindrim. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How China left the world far behind in the battery race Nov 20, 2023

Show notes

By 2025, China’s battery production capacity will be three times as much as the rest of the world combined. Why was it able to take such a commanding lead? Listen to an extract from Akshat Rathi’s new book Climate Capitalism to find out.

How China Left the World Far Behind in the Battery Race - Bloomberg
Read Climate Capitalism
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Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Carbon removal’s magic number Nov 16, 2023

Show notes

If reducing emissions from industry is the first step for carbon capture, then drawing down excess CO2 to reverse climate change is the next. This week Akshat speaks to Dr. Jennifer Wilcox, head of the US Department of Energy’s office that is funding two gigantic carbon removal hubs and many small demonstration projects. They talk about why carbon removal is so complicated, crucial, and hitting the magic number $100. This is the second in a two part series about carbon management.

Listen to the previous episode in this series:

Big promise, little success: The state of carbon capture

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Send us your questions about COP via zeropod@bloomberg.net and we’ll try to answer them from the conference

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim, Brian Kahn, and Michelle Ma. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Europe’s top industrialist takes on green batteries Nov 14, 2023

Show notes

You may not know Jim Hagemann Snabe by name, but he has been called Europe’s top industrialist. Snabe has held leadership positions at some of the world’s biggest companies like Maersk and Siemens. He is now a chairperson of Northvolt, Europe’s largest battery manufacturer with 4,000 employees, $55B worth of orders and the competitive edge of greener batteries.
Akshat spoke with Jim Snabe at the Bloomberg Tech Summit in London about how industrial behemoths like Maersk and Siemens can meet climate goals, whether zero-emission shipping will ever be a reality, and whether Northvolt can ever outcompete the Chinese battery industry.

Send your questions about COP to zeropod@bloomberg.net and we’ll try to answer them from the conference.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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