Making sense of this climate moment
I wrote a book to understand what have we done so far to fight climate change and what can past success teach us about the way forward
I’m Akshat Rathi, a senior reporter for Bloomberg News, and I’m writing to tell you about a special thing. My new book Climate Capitalism has been out for just over a month and it’s got great reviews so far, including The Times calling it one of the best science and environment books of the year. It’s been recommended by Bill Gates, Kim Stanley Robinson, Dia Mirza, David Wallace-Wells, Pilita Clark, and Hannah Ritchie.
If you’ve not had the chance to read it yet, I hope to persuade you.
Over the next two weeks, there will be a lot of focus on the annual UN climate conference COP28 in Dubai. While important, these global talks are only the starting point to decarbonize the global economy. The vast majority of the work happens inside a country or company where people, policy and technology come together to make it happen.
It’s understandable that, as we experience the hottest year in human history, there is a strong feeling that we’ve been let down by politicians who talk a big game on tackling climate change, by corporations that greenwash, and by an economic system that’s set up to maximize profits only and not to reduce emissions.
But it’s not the complete story. This year, we’ll hit a new record in the deployment of renewable power and sales of electric cars. More countries than ever will have not just set decades-out net zero goals, but also policies backed by billions of dollars to fund solutions. There has been progress in cutting emissions despite a status quo that resists change. Yes, the pace of the progress hasn’t been enough, but I wrote the book to find success stories around the world that we all can learn from.
It’s also a book I wanted to read as a climate journalist. A book that takes a truly global approach to telling stories about a global problem. It’s not laying down a theory, but it’s full of tales from not just the US, the UK and rich countries, but also from India, China and emerging economies. It’s got stories not just about technologies, but also about changes being made to the very system of capitalism to enable the deployment of those technologies at scale.
My hope is that the book will help you understand the two-track world we live in. On one track, climate impacts will continue to get worse until we reach net zero. On another, the number of people working on tackling the problem keeps rising, the capital we employ to cut emissions keeps growing, and the solutions keep getting deployed greater scale.
You can get Climate Capitalism wherever you usually buy books and if that doesn’t work use this link to get one delivered for free wherever you are in the world. As a bonus, here’s a conversation on the podcast I usually host for Bloomberg Green called Zero where the tables were turned and podcast editor Kira Bindrim interviewed me.
Once you’ve had the chance to read the book, I hope you’ll recommend it to others and also write to me (akshat.rathi@proton.me) with thoughts. Thank you in advance for taking the time out for it.