99 episodes
Zero: The Climate Race Bloomberg
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- Business
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4.7 • 123 Ratings
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Zero is about the tactics and technologies taking us to a world of zero emissions. Each week Bloomberg’s award-winning reporter Akshat Rathi talks to the people tackling climate change – a venture capitalist hunting for the best cleantech investment, scientists starting companies, politicians who have successfully created climate laws, and CEOs who have completely transformed their businesses. The road to zero emissions has many paths and everyone’s got an opinion about the best route. Listen in.
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How ‘energy islands’ can supercharge offshore wind
If you've paid much attention to the wind industry lately, the news isn’t great. Building new projects is getting more expensive and getting government permission to do it is taking longer than ever. Even major players like Orsted, Vestas and Siemens are struggling.
But it's not all negative — there are still big players winning in wind. One of them is Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. This week, Bloomberg Green senior reporter Akshat Rathi speaks with CIP founder and managing partner Jakob Baruël Poulsen to understand how the industry is dealing with its many challenges, why CIP is still profitable and what will be needed for wind deployment to keep pace with climate goals.
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Tiffany Tsoi, Sommer Saadi and Magnus Henriksson. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim and Will Mathis. 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 cut industrial emissions and dodge the valley of death
Clean energy technologies saw a record influx of investment last year: $1.7 trillion in total. But that still falls short of what’s needed to meet climate goals. With venture capital investment now falling, it’s increasingly difficult for startups to gain traction.
Claire Curry, global head of technology, industry & innovation at BloombergNEF, follows the journeys of many young companies in the clean-tech space. On this week’s Zero, Curry tells Akshat Rathi about the kinds of innovative pathways that have proven successful. LanzaTech, for example, a nine-year-old carbon recycling technology company, works with Chinese steel companies looking for low-emissions solutions. H2 Green Steel also scaled quickly, in part through agreements reached with Mercedes Benz, IKEA and other big brands looking to access low-carbon steel. Curry explains how these approaches could be replicated by other startups.
Listen to Zero’s episode about green-iron startup Electra.
Listen to Switched On’s episodes on clean-energy investments and plastic recycling.
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Mythili Rao, Magnus Henriksson, and Sommer Saadi. Special thanks this week to 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. -
The climate watchdog holding the UK government to account
When the UK’s Climate Change Committee was formed in 2008, it both signaled the country’s seriousness about its environmental goals and gave other nations a template for setting their own climate policy. More recently, though, the UK appears to be backpedaling: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has approved new oil and gas licenses and pushed back a ban on fossil fuel cars. To understand how we got to this contentious moment, and how the UK can reclaim leadership, Zero host Akshat Rathi sat down with the CCC’s chief executive, Chris Stark.
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Mythili Rao, Sommer Saadi and Magnus Henriksson. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim and Jessica Nix. 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 legally binding treaty to fight the plastic problem
The plastic problem is everywhere: in our oceans, communities, even inside our bodies. Plastic is abundant and very cheap, and the amount we produce is expected to triple by 2060 from 430 million tons a year to 1.2 billion tons, according to the OECD. The large amount of plastic could produce four billion tons of greenhouse gases, so a fix is becoming increasingly necessary. This week, Bloomberg Green senior reporter Akshat Rathi sat down with Inger Andersen, head of the UN’s Environment Program, to talk about an upcoming treaty that tackles increasing levels of plastic. You can read the transcript of this conversation 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, Leslie Kaufman and Tiffany Tsoi. 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. -
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The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon.
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Making renewables a profitable bet… everywhere
When Brookfield Asset Management launched a $15 billion fund to expand clean energy in 2021, it was the largest private fund of its kind in the world. Now Brookfield is starting a second fund with billions from Alterra, which is backed by the United Arab Emirates. Zero host Akshat Rathi sat down with Brookfield Renewable Partners CEO Connor Teskey to talk about making climate finance work. You can read the transcript of the conversation here.
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Tiffany Tsoi, Sommer Saadi and Magnus Henriksson. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim and Jessica Nix. 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.
Customer Reviews
A Plus
Highly informative, in depth, every episode investigates a piece of the complex puzzle with high quality informants.
The EV episode was a wild ride
The title itself makes no sense, and they even admit as much during the podcast, if not in so many words. Is the future of cars electric? Yes. Is the future of transportation electric cars? No way, and they even say it at the end. A few points: The guest seems to think that air quality effects from ICE vehicles only comes from tailpipe emissions, when in fact, a very large contributor to air pollution is tire wear. This is an even worse problem with EVs because they are so much heavier than ICE cars. They also suggest that the increase in EV sales is down to customer demand, but then go on to state that policy is really moving the needle and more needs to be done. After blathering on about the ins and outs of the expanding EV market, the guest mentions at the very end that an all-of-the-above approach for future transport is what is really needed, to include the umbrella of active transport (walking, biking, etc.) and public transit. OK, that makes sense. So why does most of the transportation part of the IRA go towards electrifying passenger cars and the needed infrastructure to make that possible? They state explicitly that we are absolutely not on track for our carbon goals, yet decided to make a celebratory report of the rapidly expanding EV market. EVs will do one thing well: they will help rescue the car industry. They will NOT single-handedly help us meet climate goals. They will cause the same traffic as ICE cars, will likely cause worse wear on roads and infrastructure (which by itself is massively expensive and hugely carbon intensive), and will likely play a role in the actual safety crisis of traffic fatalities and injuries that is happening today (since they are heavier, they are generally deadlier). Also, the data cited from the Netherlands is pulled so far out of context as to be laughable. It makes sense such a large percentage of kms are traveled in car because that’s what cars are generally good for: going long distances. Most NL cities are designed in such a way that longer commutes are not necessary, so people travel less far to begin with, about 20% lower than the US, on average. And the modal share of ‘active’ transport over these shorter trips is astronomically higher than countries like the US. All that because of policy and planning. It’s not a “tricky” question like the guest suggests.
Game show
Not a fan of the format; the loud laughing is off putting