Achieving net-zero carbon emissions is a massive challenge for every industry, but some have it harder than others.  This week, Bloomberg Green senior reporter Akshat Rathi spoke with two Australian startups that are tackling carbon emissions in sectors whose carbon footprints are particularly intractable. Inspired by shark skin, MicroTau is creating a plastic film that makes airplanes more aerodynamic, reducing their fuel consumption.  Novalith, meanwhile, is redesigning lithium battery  manufacturing to make it cleaner. Both have received funding from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation in Australia. Rathi sat down with MicroTau founder Henry Bilinsky and Novalith Chief Executive Officer Steven Vassiloudis  to understand the challenges their startups face and where they find optimism. 

Explore further:
Past episode with  Australia Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) chief executive officer, Ian Learmonth 
Past episode about carbon-removal startups with Nan Ransohoff, head of climate at Stripe
Past episode with Bill Gates about investing in nuclear power and other green energy plants

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Mythili Rao, Oscar Boyd, Tiffany Tsoi, Sommer Saadi and Magnus Henriksson. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Will Mathis. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

Achieving net-zero carbon emissions is a massive challenge for every industry, but some have it harder than others.  This week, Bloomberg Green senior reporter Akshat Rathi spoke with two Australian startups that are tackling carbon emissions in sectors whose carbon footprints are particularly intractable. Inspired by shark skin, MicroTau is creating a plastic film that makes airplanes more aerodynamic, reducing their fuel consumption.  Novalith, meanwhile, is redesigning lithium battery  manufacturing to make it cleaner. Both have received funding from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation in Australia. Rathi sat down with MicroTau founder Henry Bilinsky and Novalith Chief Executive Officer Steven Vassiloudis  to understand the challenges their startups face and where they find optimism. 
Explore further:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode with  <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/c7e75f56-e8fd-4810-a8f9-b07300cfebea">Australia Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) chief executive officer, Ian Learmonth </a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/d85a50bf-a2f6-41f8-a65f-b1a10100dd60">about carbon-removal startups with Nan Ransohoff, head of climate at Stripe</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode with <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/5c03674f-ef34-4279-81a9-b19a00c73e8a">Bill Gates about investing in nuclear power and other green energy plants</a></li>
</ul>
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producers are Mythili Rao, Oscar Boyd, Tiffany Tsoi, Sommer Saadi and Magnus Henriksson. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Will Mathis. 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

The sleek, fuel-saving airplanes coated with synthetic shark skin

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/61081576-45dd-4729-81c9-b1e100e991a5/transcript

Weather patterns have always had an impact on people and civilizations. Historians argue that El Niño may have contributed to the French Revolution, and climate variability could have led to weakening the Ottoman Empire. But as anthropogenic emissions make the planet hotter, faster, Berghof Foundation Executive Director Andrew Gilmour says the risk of conflict is growing. In the 30 years he spent working with the United Nations, Gilmour repeatedly saw how competition over resources such as land and water led to conflict, but he also sees opportunities for aligning peace-building with climate solutions. “The common solutions could be, for example, a solar powered irrigation scheme,” Gilmour tells Akshat Rathi. “It could be joint management of a wildlife reserve, it could be a desalination project.” 

Explore further:
Past episode with Harvard Medical School emergency physician Renee Salas about public policy approaches to mitigating the health impacts of heat waves
Past episode about the dramatization of the fight to represent developing nations’ interests at COP 3 in a new play called “Kyoto”
Past episode about the life of climate scientist and activist Saleemul Huq

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Jessica Beck, 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.

Weather patterns have always had an impact on people and civilizations. Historians argue that El Niño may have contributed to the French Revolution, and climate variability could have led to weakening the Ottoman Empire. But as anthropogenic emissions make the planet hotter, faster, Berghof Foundation Executive Director Andrew Gilmour says the risk of conflict is growing. In the 30 years he spent working with the United Nations, Gilmour repeatedly saw how competition over resources such as land and water led to conflict, but he also sees opportunities for aligning peace-building with climate solutions. “The common solutions could be, for example, a solar powered irrigation scheme,” Gilmour tells Akshat Rathi. “It could be joint management of a wildlife reserve, it could be a desalination project.” 
Explore further:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode with Harvard Medical School emergency physician Renee Salas about <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/21381f2b-a997-48da-8619-b1cc0120b28c">public policy approaches to mitigating the health impacts of heat waves</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/d65860d5-e4b3-43f2-b524-b1a800ad4f78">about the dramatization of the fight to represent developing nations’ interests at COP 3 in a new play called “Kyoto”</a>  </li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/53861565-1b3c-475d-ab5f-b0ae00da8272">about the life of climate scientist and activist Saleemul Huq</a></li>
</ul>
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim, Jessica Beck, 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>.

War and peace-building on a heating planet

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/7d1c8bf3-a9b4-4155-aec5-b1e800fc14b1/transcript

After years of research and development and billions in investment, autonomous flying taxis are finally poised to take off. Companies working on these pilotless vehicles have been quietly working on prototypes. In this bonus from The Big Take, Bloomberg reporter Colum Murphy takes a test flight in one of the first models operating in China, and his colleague Angus Whitley explains why it’s a make or break moment for the industry.

Plus: Hear a past episode episode of Zero about flying cars with Venkat Viswanathan, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has been working to create a battery that can power an aircraft on a trip over 200 miles.

After years of research and development and billions in investment, autonomous flying taxis are finally poised to take off. Companies working on these pilotless vehicles have been quietly working on prototypes. In this bonus from The Big Take, Bloomberg reporter Colum Murphy takes a test flight in one of the first models operating in China, and his colleague Angus Whitley explains why it’s a make or break moment for the industry.
Plus: Hear <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/be042ea6-4d91-4f16-8376-afe200a12ba4">a past episode episode of Zero about flying cars with Venkat Viswanathan</a>, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has been working to create a battery that can power an aircraft on a trip over 200 miles.

Big Take: The billion-dollar promise of flying taxis

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/1844fbdf-abf5-4639-bca0-b1e200bbadfb/transcript

Before he founded the geothermal startup Fervo in 2017, Tim Latimer was a drilling engineer for the oil and gas industry — a job he loved. “Honestly, if it wasn't for climate change, I probably wouldn’t have ever changed my career,” he says this week on Zero. Now Latimer is applying his drilling know-how to Fervo’s wells, supercharging their energy production in the process. The company opened its first power plant in Nevada late in 2023, and is now in the process of opening another plant in Utah. Latimer and Akshat Rathi chat about opportunities in geothermal, the infernal permitting process, and why Fervo has its sights on expanding into Kenya, Indonesia, Turkey and the Philippines.

Explore further:
Past episode with the National Grid’s Sanjeet Sanghera about the need to update the grid on the path to net zero
Past episode with Bill Gates about investing in nuclear power and other green energy plants
Past episode with BNEF’s Claire Curry about how clean energy technology startups can succeed in a difficult investment climate

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim 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.

Before he founded the geothermal startup Fervo in 2017, Tim Latimer was a drilling engineer for the oil and gas industry — a job he loved. “Honestly, if it wasn't for climate change, I probably wouldn’t have ever changed my career,” he says this week on Zero. Now Latimer is applying his drilling know-how to Fervo’s wells, supercharging their energy production in the process. The company opened its first power plant in Nevada late in 2023, and is now in the process of opening another plant in Utah. Latimer and Akshat Rathi chat about opportunities in geothermal, the infernal permitting process, and why Fervo has its sights on expanding into Kenya, Indonesia, Turkey and the Philippines.
Explore further:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode with <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/4f043f5f-7195-4ac9-9f3e-b1b700a88eea">the National Grid’s Sanjeet Sanghera about the need to update the grid on the path to net zero</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode with <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/5c03674f-ef34-4279-81a9-b19a00c73e8a">Bill Gates about investing in nuclear power and other green energy plants</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Past episode with BNEF’s Claire Curry about <a href="https://omnystudio.com/p/zero/clips/926b52ba-1a8f-418d-bfc1-b14e01505119">how clean energy technology startups can succeed in a difficult investment climate</a> </li>
</ul>
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Kira Bindrim 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 greenest reason to drill: clean power that's always on

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/537aaaf8-e89e-4463-8b2c-b1d9011a8da3/transcript

The sleek, fuel-saving airplanes coated with synthetic shark skin

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