Zero: The Climate Race

Latest Episodes:

The biggest opportunity in the history of the world May 25, 2023

Show notes

Dipender Saluja is the Managing Director of Capricorn Investment Group, a venture capital firm with $9B under management. He was an early investor in Tesla. Today Dipender leads Capricorn’s clean tech investments effort and is betting on nuclear fusion, next gen batteries and electric aviation as the next moneymakers in decarbonizing the economy. Dipender has worked in Silicon Valley for 35 years. This week, Akshat talks with him about why he got interested in venture capital, climate tech, and how his start in the semiconductor industry informs his investment strategy.

Listen to the interview with Rebecca Shirley of World Resources Institute and Makthar Diop of International Finance Corporation to learn more about clean energy financing in developing nations here.

Leslie Kaufman’s story about TerraCycle here.
A transcript of the episode

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim, Venkat Viswanathan, and Dashiell Bennett. 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.

Does it matter if the world breaches 1.5C for a single year? May 18, 2023

Show notes

This week a new report was released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that says we are likely to exceed 1.5C of warming for a single year at some point in the next five years. It’s a big deal for many reasons, especially because limiting global warming to within 1.5C of pre-industrial temperatures is a key goal of the Paris Agreement.

In this bonus episode of Zero, Akshat Rathi and Oscar Boyd talk about what the WMO report says and why it matters.

Read more about the WMO report:

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Zahra Hirji, Olivia Rudgard 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.

Redesigning cities for a future of extreme heat May 18, 2023

Show notes

At their best, cities can be a climate solution: densely packed places with good public transport, effective health care, and plenty for everyone to do. Combined with clean energy, they become carbon-efficient centers. But cities can also be a climate disaster: Low levels of vegetation, big concrete buildings, high traffic and poor airflow create the perfect conditions for extreme heat waves. As cities grow and an ever greater percentage of the population become urban dwellers, the impacts of these heat events will be felt by more and more people.

This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with Global Chief Heat Officer Eleni Myrivili, about how cities can be made more resilient to heat, and why aircon is not a solution we can rely on.

A profile of Eugenia Kargbo, Chief Heat Officer in Sierra Leone.
Olivia Rudgard’s article on Happisburgh’s disappearing coastline.
A full transcript of this episode.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim and Laura Millan. 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.

Biden’s climate bill is changing climate tech, and our daily lives May 11, 2023

Show notes

It’s been eight months since President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act. Already the hundreds of billions of dollars it contains for clean energy and slowing climate change —alongside private venture capital investments — are funding a wide array of climate technology projects, from decarbonizing infrastructure to rust-based battery storage.

This week we are sharing an episode of the Bloomberg podcast The Big Take that looks at where all the money in U.S. President Biden's signature climate bill has gone. Bloomberg climate reporter Eric Roston and senior reporter Akshat Rathi talk with Big Take host Wes Kosova about how climate tech is no longer a corner of the economy–it’s fast becoming the economy. And reporter Zahra Hirji joins to talk about some of the ways the IRA’s spending is starting to show up in our everyday lives.

Read the story by Akshat Rathi and Eric Roston here. Find more from The Big Take, here. And help out Zero by taking our listener survey, here.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim and The Big Take team. 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 the Bezos Earth Fund spends its billions May 04, 2023

Show notes

Amazon made Jeff Bezos very rich. In 2020, he decided to pledge a portion of that wealth — $10 billion — to launch the Bezos Earth Fund. It is the largest commitment to climate philanthropy ever made and, by most measures, a vast amount of money. But it is also a small fraction of the $3.5 trillion that is needed annually to hit net zero by 2050. To make an impact, it has to be spent strategically and attract a lot more money from governments and corporations.

This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi asks Bezos Earth Fund CEO Andrew Steer how the fund spends its billions, what counts as success, and how competition between billionaires is shaping climate philanthropy.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim, as well as Robin Pomeroy at the World Economic Forum for arranging studio space. 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.

High hopes for biodiversity, but who will pay? Apr 27, 2023

Show notes

The world is in the middle of the sixth mass extinction and this time it's being driven by human activity. Slowing it down will provide benefits for tackling climate change, and solutions to reign in global warming will help stem biodiversity loss. But this win-win scenario isn't straightforward to put into action.

In December, world leaders gathered at COP15 in Montreal and agreed upon a new global biodiversity framework, with 23 targets including a goal of protecting 30% of all land, waters and oceans by 2030. The details on how that target will be implemented, however, are vague, and vast amounts of money will be needed to fund nature protection in biodiversity-rich, economically poor countries.

Akshat Rathi speaks with Rebecca Shaw, chief scientist at the World Wildlife Fund; Monica Medina, the US assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs; and Bloomberg Green’s Eric Roston, about what it means to protect biodiversity, and who will fund it.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

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 https://www.bloomberg.com/green

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Best of: Inside the stealth startup making zero-emission steel Apr 20, 2023

Show notes

Steel is the backbone of modern society, and it’s also responsible for 7% of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Last summer, Bloomberg Green reporter Akshat Rathi visited a US startup that says they can clean it all up. Operating in a suburban office park in Colorado, Electra claims to have developed a way to get through the most energy-intensive part of steelmaking at temperatures lower than fresh coffee. Akshat dives into the science and story of Electra with CEO Sandeep Nijhawan.
This episode first ran in October 2022. This week, Electra was awarded BloombergNEF's Pioneers award for its research into low-carbon steel. Read more about the award and see all 12 winners of the 2023 Pioneers Award here. Read the full feature about Electra here.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our senior producer is Christine Driscoll and our producer is Oscar Boyd. 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 climate case for flying cars Apr 13, 2023

Show notes

Electric aviation fulfills two futuristic promises – flying cars and emissions-free air travel. This week, meet the professor who is working to make it happen. Venkat Viswanathan, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, is working to create a battery that can power an aircraft on a trip over 200 miles. Venkat talks to Akshat about the network of people involved in electric aviation, how long it will take to develop such a light and powerful battery, and why aviation is the most important problem for batteries to solve.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Blake Maples, Stacey Wong, Sharon Chen, and Kira Bindrim.
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.

A kingdom built on oil now controls the world’s climate progress Apr 05, 2023

Show notes

When Sultan Al Jaber was made president of COP28, the year’s biggest climate summit, there was outrage. How can the head of a giant oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. – think Exxon and BP combined – convince the world to cut emissions faster? But Al Jaber isn’t an oil boss cut from the same mold. He spent a decade as a renewables executive.

This week on Zero, Bloomberg Green Executive Editor Aaron Rutkoff talks to Senior Reporter Akshat Rathi about his new in-depth profile of Al Jaber exploring a world of contradictions. You can read the full article “The Oil Sheikh’s Climate Fixer”.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks this week to Gilda Di Carli, Stacey Wong, and Kira Bindrim.

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 build a battery that replaces a coal plant Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

This week, a visit to the energy startup trying to replace coal with a very cheap battery. Form Energy has attracted nearly $900 million in investments and is building its first manufacturing facility in the US. Its big innovation relies on rust. Really. The materials scientists at Form have taken the same process that’s a symbol of time slowly passing and turned it into electricity. It’s one of the first big bets that batteries could help push the grid closer to running without fossil fuels altogether.

You can read more about Form Energy and see what the battery looks like here.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special Thanks to Kira Bindrim and Blake Maples.
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.