Zero: The Climate Race

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 change, his thoughts on whether AI complements or compromises human creativity, and why literature still matters in the era of TikTok.
Explore further:
In ‘Vigil,’ George Saunders Asks: Can An Oil CEO Repent? — Bloomberg
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable — Amitav Ghosh
Other episodes in the Imagine series:
Building Monuments to the End of Oil — Kuwaiti artist Monira Al Qadiri
Abundance or Adequacy? Search for Better Climate Solutions — Sci-fi bestseller Kim Stanley Robinson
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Gautam Naik, Sommer Saadi, Mohsis Andam, Sharon Chen and Laura Millan. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.


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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 paper called the Electrotech Revolution. This week on Zero, Bond tells Akshat Rathi why he believes electrification is inevitable, and what happens to those that are left behind.
Explore further:
India Is Electrifying Faster Than China Using Cheap Green Tech
Read Ember's Electric Revolution report.
Read Ember's analysis of India's electrification.
Read Bloomberg's Bottlenecks series.
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Sommer Saadi, Mohsis Andam, Sharon Chen and Laura Millan. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.
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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 got our approach to climate finance wrong? Lisa Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Center on Sustainable Investment, makes the case this week on the Zero podcast.
Explore further:
Mark Carney’s full Tragedy of the Horizon speech - Bank of England
There’s a $10 Trillion Antidote to Trump’s Climate Backlash - Bloomberg
Best Coffee Substitute? We Gave "Beanless" Brands a Try - Bloomberg

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Alastair Marsh, Sommer Saadi, Mohsis Andam, Sharon Chen and Laura Millan. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.
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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 administration and why Democrats are making a mistake by shying away from talking about climate action.
Read more:
Venezuela’s New Leader Is the Oil Industry’s Long-Time Ally
Venezuela’s Rule by Fear Endures After Maduro Capture: Photos - Bloomberg
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Jennifer Dlouhy, Sommer Saadi, Mohsis Andam, Sharon Chen and Laura Millan. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.
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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. Robinson joins Akshat Rathi this week on Zero to discuss how to create better futures and whether it’s right to pursue abundance.
Explore more of Kim Stanley Robinson on Zero:
Kim Stanley Robinson imagines utopia in 2025
How a utopian sci-fi author writes toward a low-carbon future
Other episode in the Imagine series:
George Saunders goes inside the mind of a climate denier
Monira Al Qadiri on building monuments to the end of oil
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Sommer Saadi, Mohsis Andam, Sharon Chen and Laura Millan. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.