Trillion-Dollar Answers to Tackle a Fast Heating World

(Bloomberg) — Each week on the Zero podcast, Bloomberg Green’s Akshat Rathi invites guests working at the forefront of climate solutions to share their ideas on how we get to net zero. Recent episodes have explored the murky world of climate negotiations, ideas to unlock trillions of dollars for green projects, and how Silicon Valley got into climate tech investing. Here are some episodes you might have missed. 

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Our cities are getting real hot

With 2023 already looking like it might become the hottest year on record, Eleni Myrivili, the global chief heat officer appointed by United Nations Habitat, sat down with Zero to talk about how cities can be designed to cope with extreme heat. More air conditioning might seem the obvious answer, but not for Myrivili, who calls it an “egotistical” solution that “pumps hot air out to the public space” and consumes too much energy. Her solutions lie in cooling cities with more water, more green spaces, and better choices of building materials.

Can billions turn to trillions?

This week in Paris, a major summit will try to tackle the intractable issue of financing clean tech in developing countries. More than 80% of the world’s population live in developing countries, and they have to be part of the solution, yet international negotiations have failed to deliver the much-needed investment. Avinash Persaud has a plan, known as the Bridgetown Agenda. Persaud is 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 investment in clean technologies in developing countries.

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Retirement is no laughing matter

How often do you think about how much your retirement fund is contributing to climate change? Chances are not much, but Richard Curtis wants you to do just that. Curtis is the writer of smash-hit British comedies like Love Actually, Mr. Bean, Blackadder and Four Weddings and a Funeral, but he has a second life as a campaigner. He joined Zero to talk about his latest project, not a movie, but a group called Make My Money Matter, which wants to make retirement funds and banks greener by raising awareness about the trillions of dollars in pensions that are invested in fossil fuel companies.

The Valley’s next big thing

Social media companies are no longer the only name in town in Silicon Valley. Climate tech is the hot topic. In 2022, venture capital firms invested a whopping $70 billion globally into climate tech, much of that money coming from firms in the valley. Dipender Saluja, a managing director at Capricorn Investment Group and head of the firm’s Technology Impact Fund, has seen it all. He was an early investor in Tesla when the company’s plan to build electric cars still seemed preposterous, and is on the hunt for the next pioneering clean tech companies. The common denominator: risk.

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Sultan’s predicament

With less than six months to go until the start of COP28, a chorus of voices is demanding to know the plan. A lot depends on Sultan Al Jaber, who is busy juggling his role as COP28 President with his other job as the head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co, a petroleum giant that’s the size of BP and Exxon combined. In this episode of Zero, Bloomberg Green Executive Editor Aaron Rutkoff sat down with Rathi to talk about his in-depth profile of Al Jaber, and how the COP president is navigating a world of contradictions.

New episodes of Zero are published each week on Thursdays. To get the latest straight to your phone, subscribe on Apple, Spotify or Google.