Zero: The Climate Race

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Build small, grow fast: Can small modular reactors live up to the hype? Aug 14, 2025

Show notes

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.

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

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How rich countries can build cheap nuclear power again Aug 07, 2025

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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.

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How a bunch of students beat big polluters in the world's highest court Jul 31, 2025

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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.

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Trump’s immigration policy is a nightmare for climate tech Jul 24, 2025

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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.

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

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How to fight against Trump’s attack on clean energy Jul 17, 2025

Show notes

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.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trumponomics: Will Trump’s bill trigger a ‘Big, Beautiful’ energy crunch? Jul 14, 2025

Show notes

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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Why militaries can no longer ignore climate change Jul 10, 2025

Show notes

The world’s militaries are incredibly polluting, collectively accounting for some 5.5% of global emissions. Western economies are now gearing up for a big expansion of their militaries, with members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agreeing to increase defense spending to 5% of their gross domestic product by 2035. That will commit trillions of dollars more to an enormously carbon intensive industry, unless militaries can find a way to reduce their emissions. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi asks retired Lieutenant General Richard Nugee, author of the UK Ministry of Defence’s climate change report: Can warfare go green?

Explore further:

Defense Budgets Need to Fight War and Climate Change, Experts Say
Richard Nugee’s Climate Report
Estimating the Military’s Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions

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(Sponsored Content) Stewards of Compassion: Doing Business With Compassion Jul 06, 2025

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What does it mean to do business with compassion? How can a company marry purpose with profit? We explore that and more with B.Grimm--the Thai conglomerate that has been doing business compassionately for nearly 150 years.

https://sponsored.bloomberg.com/media/bgrimm/the-stewards-of-compassion-podcast

This episode is sponsored by B.GRIMM.

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The UK now has a state-owned clean-energy champion. Can it succeed? Jul 03, 2025

Show notes

When the UK handed the Labour party a parliamentary majority last July, it promised to build a new state owned energy company called Great British Energy. It's almost exactly one year since its creation, and GB Energy now has a budget of £5.8 billion to get the organization off the ground. It sounds like a lot of money, but is it? And what exactly will the organization do with all of it? On Zero this week, Akshat Rathi spoke to Dan McGrail, interim CEO of GB Energy, to find out the answers.

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Watch the video of this conversation
Great British Energy website
UK’s New State Energy Company Will Spend £1 Billion on Grants - Bloomberg
UK to Spend £300 Million to Draw Offshore Wind Supply Chain

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to: Jess Beck, Eleanor Harrison-Dengate, Sommer Saadi, Mohsis Andam and Siobhan Wagner. 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 a venture capitalist does when climate tech loses its shine Jun 26, 2025

Show notes

Climate tech is not the hot investor thesis it once was a couple of years ago. After several record breaking years, and billions of dollars being poured into climate startups, venture capital investments are way down. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi speaks with Mike Schroepfer, who runs Gigascale Capital, a venture firm focusing on climate investments, and used to be Meta’s chief technology officer. Schroepfer shares his views on the current investment climate, the danger of funding cuts to US research, and why demand for AI will prompt a new wave of energy innovation.

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