PODCAST · business
Zero: The Climate Race
by Bloomberg
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.
Episodes
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A historic El Niño is coming that could cost the world trillions: Odd Lots
Zero is on a break this week, so we’re bringing you an episode from Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast. Hosts Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal speak with Justin Mankin, professor of geography at Dartmouth College and director of the Climate Modelling and Impacts Group, about the enormous impacts El…
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Tasmania’s electric shipping bet: Bloomberg Australia
Zero is on a break this week, so we’re bringing you an episode from the Bloomberg Australia podcast. A shipyard in Tasmania has delivered the world’s largest electric ship, a 130-metre ferry powered by more than 250 tons of batteries. Host Rebecca Jones talks to David Stringer, Asia Managing…
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Inside the little-known world of China's clean tech startups
China is a hotbed of innovation, filling nearly half of the world’s new patents every year. Much of that work is in the world of clean tech and a whole ecosystem is growing to help make these breakthroughs commercial. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi is joined by Tonny Xie, chairman of Bluetech...
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UK energy secretary on net zero and cheaper power: live from New York
Miatta Fahnbulleh, the UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, discusses the country's energy transition, the push for affordable and secure power and the UK’s role in the global climate action with Bloomberg's Aaron Rutkoff at Bloomberg Green New York 2026. Watch the video of…
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How to build an electrostate
How to make electricity cheap is a question that’s bedeviling policy makers around the world, particularly in the US and Europe. Some countries, however, have figured it out, including Iceland, Norway and China. So how do we get to that point? And what is the role of government versus the role of...
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Inside China’s $7 trillion green finance market
When it comes to green tech, China is a list of superlatives. It produces more solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and batteries than anywhere else in the world. But is finance the real climate hero? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi is joined by Ma Jun, chairman of the Hong Kong Green...
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Free Solo climber Alex Honnold's next mission: solar for everyone
Climber Alex Honnold is best known as the star of Free Solo, an Oscar-winning documentary that followed his rope-free ascent of the 3,000-foot (1,000-meter) face of Yosemite’s El Capitan. But he has also established the Honnold Foundation to bring solar power to those who most need it. This week…
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Do-it-yourself energy traders are gaming the grid: Big Take
Energy consumers are used to a pretty simple transaction with utility companies: get electricity to power your home, pay up every month. Now, more consumers are stockpiling their own energy using solar panels and batteries. And some are even making money by selling that energy back to the grid.…
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Nepal disaster shows how mountains are becoming less stable
On the morning of August 26, a glacial collapse in the Himalayas triggered a flash flood that sent ice, mud, rocks and fast-moving water through a valley in Nepal, wiping out entire communities. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi is joined by Lou Del Bello, who has been reporting on the disaster for...
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How to fix our vulnerable food system
Extreme weather events this year are starting to hurt food production in serious ways, which is likely to push up everyone’s food prices. That’s before the weather-wrecking super El Niño has really kicked in. So how do we build a food system that is more resilient, more secure and has lower...
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More than AI, this century’s growth story is climate action
It’s 20 years since the Stern Review declared that the costs of inaction on climate change are much higher than the costs of action. So why are emissions continuing to rise? Lord Nicholas Stern tells Bloomberg’s Akshat Rathi why he is optimistic about our ability to tackle climate change and what...
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When climate change threatens national security
The impacts of climate change are becoming not just unignorable, but unbearable. Yet the political consensus around climate action is fracturing, as leaders debate the speed and scale of the changes needed. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi speaks with Caroline Lucas, the former head of the UK’s...
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The Iran war revealed that China has a new energy weapon
The Middle East conflict is now in its fifth month, deepening the oil and gas supply shock. Early in the war, analysts worried that the oil price would rise to $200 a barrel, causing a global recession and widespread panic, but that didn’t happen. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi is joined by...
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When AI and climate anxieties collide to make beautiful stories: Imagine Series
How should we navigate a world in which anxieties about AI, climate change and capitalism collide? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi speaks with Helen Phillips, author of Hum and the second-ever winner of the Climate Fiction Prize. Rathi asks Phillips how she’s transformed her anxieties into...
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Bloomberg Australia: Lessons from the world's cleanest air
On a windswept cliff at the edge of Tasmania, scientists are quietly tracking the future of our planet. This week, host Rebecca Jones speaks with David Stringer, managing editor of climate and ESG news in Asia, about Kennaook/Cape Grim — home to some of the cleanest air on Earth and one of the...
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Ditching net zero to win the climate argument
Andy Burnham has become the UK’s sixth prime minister in just 10 years. When it comes to energy and climate, Labour Party’s Burnham will inherit many of the same challenges of his predecessors: high energy prices, security of supply and an increasingly polarized debate over the UK’s ambitions to...
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The selfish case for supporting foreign aid
Hundreds of millions of people around the world have no access to reliable electricity, a problem that doesn’t seem to be going away. Since US President Donald Trump started his second term, Western countries have cut development funding, including for climate projects. This week on Zero,...
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Is the world prepared for the 'super' El Niño?
The great famine of the 1870s killed 50 million people – and El Niño was a key driver. Another El Niño phase has just begun and it’s expected to be among the strongest. There are five times as many people in 2026 as there were in the 1870s and the planet is 1.4C hotter. So are we better prepared?...
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Is the world becoming too hot for summer sports?
From hydration breaks at this year’s FIFA World Cup to the Tokyo Olympics moving its marathon 1,000km northward, climate change is affecting sport. And sport is affecting climate, as events grow in size and carbon emissions. To talk about the future of sport on an overheating planet, this week on...
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Solar and batteries are thriving — even in Trump’s America
The common narrative is that the US renewables industry is struggling. But that’s not the case for the whole sector. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with Kevin Smith, chief executive officer of Cypress Creek Energy, which recently secured $3.5 billion in financing to build one of the…
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The energy transition debate we need to have
The key to tackling climate change is moving away from burning fossil fuels to using renewable energy. But in his book More and More and More, French historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz argues that the world has never actually managed a successful energy transition before and current plans are...
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Ice cream fight: Can companies have a social conscience in 2026?
Ben & Jerry’s isn’t just known for ice cream, but also its support for social causes. With over $1 billion in sales last year, it’s an asset for its owner Magnum. So why has one of its founders quit, and the other launched a campaign to make Ben & Jerry's independent? Bloomberg’s Akshat Rathi…
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How Asia’s ‘Ukraine moment’ is supercharging the energy transition
It's been more than three months since the US attacked Iran, leading to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz that carries 20% of the world's oil and gas. The shock to energy markets has been so intense that some countries are taking longer-term measures to cope. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi and...
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The countries plotting the end of the fossil-fuel era
At COP28 in December 2023, the world committed to transitioning away from fossil fuels. Yet in the years since, there’s been little progress. A meeting in Colombia last month hoped to change that, gathering ministers and climate envoys from 57 countries to try and chart a path to end the use of...
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Reform’s Richard Tice wants to end decades of UK climate action
Reform UK is currently the most popular party in Britain. If voted into government, it wants to end all subsidies for renewable energy, ban battery energy storage, end net-zero targets, drill for more oil and gas in the North Sea and encourage fracking on British soil. This week on Zero, Akshat...
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Electrons will be central to the next era of geopolitical stability
With wars raging and supply chains blocked, we’re in an era of geopolitical chaos. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with Gerald Butts, chairman of the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group and former chief of staff to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They discuss how investors and companies...
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The Iran war shows why clean energy is the more secure choice
Everywhere you look, you see two types of technology existing side-by-side. One that runs on fossil fuels and one that runs on clean electricity. There’s an ongoing struggle between the two, a tug of war between two very different futures. Some call it the mid-transition, and it comes with costs...
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A new world order is emerging. Can it tackle climate change?
We are living in an increasingly divided world. It took two decades to get to the Paris Agreement, and then global cooperation really lasted only for a decade. One key reason for this fragmentation is US President Donald Trump, who has taken an axe to the rules-based international order that...
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London’s mayor on lessons from one of the world’s greenest cities
Sadiq Khan is about to complete 10 years as London’s mayor. He’s seen the city affected by Brexit, the pandemic and two energy crises. That hasn’t deterred him from deploying some of the strongest air-quality regulations in any city. But he hasn’t yet succeeded in getting enough homes built and...
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Caution, not ambition, will shape the next decade of climate action
In the past month, we've seen two major plans from two of the world's biggest polluters. In March, China approved its 15th five-year plan, which gave us a clearer sense of how the government makes progress on its climate goals. A few weeks after that, India published its climate plan for 2035.…
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How the Iran war will reshape the future of energy
Since the US and Israel launched their attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, global energy markets have been frenetic, prices swinging up and down with each new headline. Even with the prospect of the Strait of Hormuz reopening, prices of oil and gas have risen around the world, and we’re starting to see...
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Climate tech makes Europe more resilient to Iran War shocks
Will the Iran War finally be the moment where countries move to renewables en masse, or will they rely more heavily on fossil fuels? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi is joined by Aurore Belfrage, a tech investor, geopolitical risk advisor, and sustainability strategist, to look at how the energy...
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Here's Why: The Iran war resets the energy transition
Here's Why is Bloomberg’s short explainer podcast, where we take one big news story and break it down in just a few minutes with help from our experts across the newsroom. We're dropping into your feed with a special episode featuring Akshat Rathi, who joined us to discuss why the Iran war is...
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Zack Polanski’s plan to tax billionaires and make energy affordable
Zack Polanski is challenging the notion that you can’t be Green and a popular politician. Since he became the leader of the UK’s Green Party in September 2025, he has run a campaign that’s pushed his party ahead of the incumbent Labour Party and opposition Conservative Party in some polls. It’s a...
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Big Take: The energy crisis is speeding up clean tech adoption worldwide
As the war with Iran drags out and oil prices remain turbulent, it raises the question of whether — and how — prolonged conflict in the Middle East might impact global fossil fuel dependence and the future of renewable energy. This week on Big Take podcast, Bloomberg reporter Todd Woody and Zero...
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The future of climate science without US support
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is responsible for collating our shared scientific understanding of how global warming is impacting the planet. But the body now faces a challenge after the US withdrew funding for its scientists to participate. Professor Jim Skea, who...
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‘Everywhere I looked, climate change bled’ Abi Daré on writing fiction: Imagine series
In the latest episode of Zero’s Imagine series, Akshat Rathi is joined by Abi Daré, winner of the inaugural Climate Fiction Prize. Abi is the bestselling author of And So I Roar, which tells the story of the teenager Adunni as she confronts superstition, lack of education and the impacts of…
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War with Iran is a nightmare for oil and gas. What does it mean for clean energy?
Many consider a widespread war in the Middle East the worst-case scenario for the global oil and gas markets. That war is here, and it could have wide-ranging, long-lasting impacts on energy and climate policy. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi speaks with Jason Bordoff, director of the Center on...
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Lessons to avoid societal collapse, from 5,000 years of history
Societal collapses happen more often than you think, and there’s much we can learn from the past to avoid or, at least, delay another one. This week’s guest on Zero is Luke Kemp, author of Goliath's Curse, which draws lessons from the rise and fall of societies over 5,000 years of human history....
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(Sponsored Content) Evolving Money: Blue Chip Meets Blockchain
Crypto has become increasingly integrated into the financial system, from the use of stablecoins for payments, to the trading of tokenized equities on blockchains, to the adoption of crypto holdings by corporate treasuries. We explore how PNC Bank, one of the first movers in this space, has been...
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Ethiopia’s fossil fuel car ban is a vision of the future
In 2024, Ethiopia did something revolutionary. It banned the import of fossil fuel cars and cut tariffs on electric vehicles. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with producer Oscar Boyd and Ethiopia-based EV entrepreneur Yuma Sasaki about the EV boom that ensued and what that tells us about…
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Do artists have a duty to be political? Imagine series
How can music be used to communicate the climate crisis and its solutions? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with Pulitzer Prize winning composer Julia Wolfe about her recent work, unEarth, which explores climate change and habitat loss through orchestra, voice and poetry. Wolfe discusses how...
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Electricity is now holding back growth across the global economy
Major economies around the world are grappling with electricity grids under stress from equipment bottlenecks and workforce shortages. What can be done to solve it? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with Manoj Sinha, CEO of Husk Power Systems, about distributed energy resources and their...
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George Saunders goes inside the mind of a climate denier: Imagine series
What is the best way to tell a climate story? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi speaks with Booker Prize-winning novelist George Saunders. His new novel Vigil is an exploration of guilt, told on the deathbed of an oil executive haunted by ghosts. Rathi asks Saunders what he learned about climate...
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Electrification – not decarbonization – is the climate story of 2026
Decarbonizing energy is just one part of the climate story. The other half is electrifying as much as possible. That is why electrification, not decarbonization, is likely going to be the most important climate story of 2026. Kingsmill Bond is a strategist at thinktank Ember and the author of a...
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Did we get climate finance all wrong?
For the last decade, since the Paris Agreement was signed, governments have been trying to nudge big financial players to move more money into climate solutions. The idea was to drive action through data disclosure and net-zero goals, but that hasn’t yielded the results they hoped for. Have we…
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America the bully becomes the supreme petrostate
President Donald Trump wants US companies to rebuild Venezuela's oil fields after the capture of Nicolas Maduro. This week on Zero, US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse joins Akshat Rathi to discuss why the US is acting like a petro bully, how countries can resist an increasingly aggressive Trump...
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Abundance or adequacy? The search for better climate futures: Imagine series
Kim Stanley Robinson’s life project has been imagining utopias. He’s a science-fiction writer best known in climate circles for writing Ministry For The Future, which depicts a future in which the world gets to grips with climate change following an extreme heat event that kills millions.…
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Update: Have China's emissions finally peaked?
This episode was originally recorded in July 2025, and updated in December 2025. Happy Holidays from the Zero team. When exactly China’s emissions peak will make a big difference to the fate of the planet. That moment has come, according to Lauri Myllyvirta, co-founder of the Centre for Research…
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How cash-strapped Argentina became a bright spot for renewables
Despite endless financial difficulties, Argentina has seen a remarkable increase in clean energy over the past decade. It has gone from practically zero to almost 18% of its electricity sourced from renewables. In doing so, Argentina has overcome a challenge faced by many countries that are...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
HOSTED BY
Bloomberg
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Zero: The Climate Race have?
Zero: The Climate Race currently has 257 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Zero: The Climate Race about?
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...
How often does Zero: The Climate Race release new episodes?
Zero: The Climate Race publishes regularly with 257 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Zero: The Climate Race?
You can listen to Zero: The Climate Race on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Zero: The Climate Race?
Zero: The Climate Race is created and hosted by Bloomberg.
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