As Florida reels from the impact of Hurricane Milton, some Wall Street investors appear to be on track to profit from catastrophe bonds tied to the storm’s outcome. Cat bonds are a specialized insurance tool that can help people who've lost their homes find money to rebuild– or deliver big profits to investors who are willing to gamble on big natural disasters. As Bloomberg’s Gautam Naik has reported, last year cat bonds were the most profitable strategy for hedge funds. Naik tells Akshat Rathi about how these financial instruments differ from ordinary insurance, and why they have become an appealing proposition for climate vulnerable nations desperate for any kind of help they can get.

Explore further:
Read the Big Take story on how catastrophe bonds are helping Florida but not Jamaica
Past episode about compound climate impacts with Texas Tech University professor Katharine Hayhoe
Past episode with Avinash Persaud, special adviser on climate change for the Inter-American Development Bank, about the fight brewing over what money richer nations will pay to help poorer nations face climate change

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Aaron Rutkoff, Siobhan Wagner, Jim Wyss, Jessica Beck, Ethan Steinberg, and Monique Mulima. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

As Florida reels from the impact of Hurricane Milton, some Wall Street investors appear to be on track to profit from catastrophe bonds tied to the storm’s outcome. Cat bonds are a specialized insurance tool that can help people who've lost their homes find money to rebuild– or deliver big profits to investors who are willing to gamble on big natural disasters. As Bloomberg’s Gautam Naik has reported, last year cat bonds were the most profitable strategy for hedge funds. Naik tells Akshat Rathi about how these financial instruments differ from ordinary insurance, and why they have become an appealing proposition for climate vulnerable nations desperate for any kind of help they can get.
Explore further:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Read the Big Take story on <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-jamaica-hurricane-catastrophe-bonds/?srnd=undefined&amp;sref=jjXJRDFv">how catastrophe bonds are helping Florida but not Jamaica</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode about <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/f1721369-793e-43fd-8754-b18f0127ecbf">compound climate impacts with Texas Tech University professor Katharine Hayhoe</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode with <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/bf838c40-bdc7-4f9f-920b-b20400fc7665">Avinash Persaud, special adviser on climate change for the Inter-American Development Bank, about the fight brewing over what money richer nations will pay to help poorer nations face climate change</a></li>
</ul>
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Aaron Rutkoff, Siobhan Wagner, Jim Wyss, Jessica Beck, Ethan Steinberg, and Monique Mulima. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/green">https://www.bloomberg.com/green</a>.

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.

Zero: The Climate Race

Zero

Who wins when 'hurricane investors' gamble on catastrophes

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/35cdde31-58c2-4f64-85f1-b2050159a624/transcript

Next month, when delegates from around the world meet in Baku, Azerbaijan at COP29, the biggest questions on the table will have to do with money. Can rich nations find a way to meet developing countries’ demand for up to $1 trillion each year in climate finance? Avinash Persaud, special adviser on climate change for the Inter-American Development Bank, has spent his career looking for ways to make global markets work to unlock climate financing. He says the biggest challenges arise from a simple reality: “The people who benefit and the people who pay are different.” Persaud tells Akshat Rathi why he believes climate change is an “uninsurable” event, and discusses the kinds of financial instruments and commitments that can help poorer countries contribute to the energy transition and adapt to a warmer world.   

Explore further:
Previous episode with Avinash Persaud about pressuring the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to accelerate the roll-out of clean technologies in developing countries
Past episode about the significance of the COP28 text  
Past episode with African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina about financial instruments the bank is using to encourage investors to fund green development projects

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Siobhan Wagner and Monique Mulima. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

Next month, when delegates from around the world meet in Baku, Azerbaijan at COP29, the biggest questions on the table will have to do with money. Can rich nations find a way to meet developing countries’ demand for up to $1 trillion each year in climate finance? Avinash Persaud, special adviser on climate change for the Inter-American Development Bank, has spent his career looking for ways to make global markets work to unlock climate financing. He says the biggest challenges arise from a simple reality: “The people who benefit and the people who pay are different.” Persaud tells Akshat Rathi why he believes climate change is an “uninsurable” event, and discusses the kinds of financial instruments and commitments that can help poorer countries contribute to the energy transition and adapt to a warmer world.   
Explore further:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Previous episode with <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/4bed4f3f-d18c-4dc5-867e-b021010c67a0">Avinash Persaud about pressuring the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to accelerate the roll-out of clean technologies in developing countries</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/e250263f-9ef9-412f-8a89-b0d7015a0599">about the significance of the COP28 text  </a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode<a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/11fc17f4-3291-4743-a205-b1630100468f"> with African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina about financial instruments the bank is using to encourage investors to fund green development projects</a></li>
</ul>
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Siobhan Wagner and Monique Mulima. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/green">https://www.bloomberg.com/green</a>.

The fight over finance brewing at COP29: Moving Money

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/bf838c40-bdc7-4f9f-920b-b20400fc7665/transcript

What if major economies all just agreed to quit fossil fuels  — together? To date, 13 countries have signed a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty. The biggest is Colombia, which has a $40 billion economic transition plan to build up green sectors and replace oil and gas revenue. Now Colombia is hoping to recruit other large economies to follow suit. 

During a conversation at Climate Week in New York, Akshat Rathi sat down with Colombia’s environment minister, Susana Muhamad, and Brazil's chief climate negotiator, Liliam Chagas, to talk about what it will take for more nations to combat climate change. Brazil has not joined the treaty, yet, but as the designated host of COP30 in 2025, the country has signaled that it, too, wants to be a leader on climate change. 

Explore further:
Past episode about what Vice-President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are planning to do when it comes to climate
Past episode with Reclaim Finance’s Lucie Pinson about how to get banks to stop investing in fossil fuel projects
Past episode about the significance of COP28’s resolution to transition away from fossil fuels

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim and Matthew Griffin. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

What if major economies all just agreed to quit fossil fuels  — together? To date, 13 countries have signed a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty. The biggest is Colombia, which has a $40 billion economic transition plan to build up green sectors and replace oil and gas revenue. Now Colombia is hoping to recruit other large economies to follow suit. 
During a conversation at Climate Week in New York, Akshat Rathi sat down with Colombia’s environment minister, Susana Muhamad, and Brazil's chief climate negotiator, Liliam Chagas, to talk about what it will take for more nations to combat climate change. Brazil has not joined the treaty, yet, but as the designated host of COP30 in 2025, the country has signaled that it, too, wants to be a leader on climate change. 
Explore further:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode about what <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/8fe00920-4028-4942-8f31-b1ef0105c449">Vice-President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are planning to do when it comes to climate</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode with <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/9a19f137-edcb-4d40-bbad-b1b100ab0a2f">Reclaim Finance’s Lucie Pinson about how to get banks to stop investing in fossil fuel projects</a> </li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode about <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/e250263f-9ef9-412f-8a89-b0d7015a0599">the significance of COP28’s resolution to transition away from fossil fuels</a></li>
</ul>
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim and Matthew Griffin. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/green">https://www.bloomberg.com/green</a>.

Colombia is quitting fossil fuels. Can it convince other countries to follow its lead?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/eb6a49bf-4e32-4e1f-8cd5-b1fd010eeeb6/transcript

Scientists have been trying to understand — and mimic — the way the sun produces energy for centuries. But recreating the energy-generating process of nuclear fusion here on Earth presents an array of technical challenges. Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, began working on some of those challenges as a doctoral student at MIT. Now backed by more than $2 billion, CFS is well on its way to making the long-held dream of nuclear fusion a reality. On this week’s Zero, Mumgaard breaks down the science behind CFS’s bagel-shaped tokamak reactor, and explains why he believes the nuclear fusion industry is just getting started.

Explore further:
Past episode with Bill Gates on why he is investing big in nuclear power
Past episode with Tim Latimer about why he founded geothermal startup Fervo
Past episode with BNEF’s Claire Curry about how startups can succeed in a difficult investment environment

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Monique Mulima, and Jess Beck. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

Scientists have been trying to understand — and mimic — the way the sun produces energy for centuries. But recreating the energy-generating process of nuclear fusion here on Earth presents an array of technical challenges. Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, began working on some of those challenges as a doctoral student at MIT. Now backed by more than $2 billion, CFS is well on its way to making the long-held dream of nuclear fusion a reality. On this week’s Zero, Mumgaard breaks down the science behind CFS’s bagel-shaped tokamak reactor, and explains why he believes the nuclear fusion industry is just getting started.
Explore further:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode with <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/5c03674f-ef34-4279-81a9-b19a00c73e8a">Bill Gates on why he is investing big in nuclear power</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode with <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/537aaaf8-e89e-4463-8b2c-b1d9011a8da3">Tim Latimer about why he founded geothermal startup Fervo</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode with <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/537aaaf8-e89e-4463-8b2c-b1d9011a8da3">BNEF’s Claire Curry about how startups can succeed in a difficult investment environment</a></li>
</ul>
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Monique Mulima, and Jess Beck. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/green">https://www.bloomberg.com/green</a>.

Inside the race to open the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/929aace6-ab34-4eeb-9a56-b1f600fabe49/transcript

Who wins when 'hurricane investors' gamble on catastrophes

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