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 potential to bring electricity to where it is needed most — from energy-poor regions in the Global South, to energy-hungry data centres in rich countries.

Bottlenecks series:

• Electricity Is Now Holding Back Growth Across the Global Economy

• AI-Driven Demand for Gas Turbines Risks a New Energy Crunch
• The Fix for Solar Power Blackouts Is Already Here
• There Aren’t Enough Engineers to Meet World’s Growing Hunger for Power
• The One Device Throttling the World’s Electrified Future

Other related stories

• Renewables Are Cheap. Why Aren’t People Seeing Their Bills Fall?
• Biggest Mini-Grid Firm Seeks $400 Million, Plans Revenue Surge

Q&A: Got a question for Akshat and the Bloomberg Green team that you'd like to hear answered on Zero? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Marilen Martin Somer Saadi, Mohsis Andam, Laura Millan and Sharon Chen. 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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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

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Guatham Naik, Sommer Saadi, Mohsis Andam, Sharon Chen and Laura Millan. 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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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 zeropod@bloomberg.net. 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 zeropod@bloomberg.net. 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 zeropod@bloomberg.net. 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 further:

• Kim Stanley Robinson Imagines Utopia in 2025
• How a Utopian Sci-Fi Author Writes Toward a Low-Carbon Future

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

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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 on Energy and Clean Air. A combination of factors – including a huge deployment of renewables and electrification of transport – has put China’s emissions into a structural decline. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi asks Myllyvirta how confident he is that this really is a peak? What’s behind the decline in emissions? And how will the trade war with the US affect China’s climate and energy policies in the years to come?

Explore further:

• Lauri's latest analysis for Carbon Brief.
• Global Carbon Budget analysis.
• Analysis: Clean energy just put China’s CO2 emissions into reverse for first time - Carbon Brief
• China Set to Reach Peak Emissions Before 2030, Ex-Official Says - Bloomberg
• China’s Solar Industry Gathers as Gloom Deepens Over Demand — Bloomberg

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.

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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 considered uninvestable by major financial institutions.

Sebastian Kind, former undersecretary at the ministry of energy in Argentina, joins Akshat Rathi on Zero to tell the story of Argentina’s renewables blitz.

Explore further:

• Sebastian’s organisation, RELP: https://www.relp.ngo/
• Sebastian’s TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACC5KCPRt_U

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.