What Donald Trump’s return means for US climate ambition

Zero: The Climate Race

Bloomberg

Technology, Business, Science

4.7 • 219 Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

Tom Steyer is a hedge-fund billionaire who made his money investing in distressed assets, including fossil fuel projects. He’s also an avowed climate activist and a major donor to US politicians seeking to tackle climate change. After a short-lived run for president, Steyer in 2021 set up Galvanize Climate Solutions, a firm that invests in companies and technologies promising emissions reductions this decade. It recently raised $1 billion.

Zero host Akshat Rathi spoke with Steyer at COP28 in December, to ask why he got out of fossil fuels, the consequences of bad carbon accounting, and what the return of Donald Trump would mean for global climate ambitions.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim, Tiffany Tsoi. Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Zero. I am Akshutrati. This week, Presidents, billionaires, and power.
0:07.0	Back in 2020, nearly 30 people competed to be the Democratic nominee for president, all hoping to go against Donald Trump.
0:28.8	One of them was Tom Steyer. He spent $10 million of his own money on ads to drum up support to impeach Donald Trump.
0:37.0	And then, over the course of his presidential campaign, spent hundreds of millions of dollars
0:41.7	more.
0:42.7	Join us.
0:43.7	And tell your member of Congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing what's
0:48.2	political and start doing what's right.
0:51.8	Long story short, Steyer dropped out, Trump lost, and Joe Biden became president.
0:58.3	But Steyer was not just any billionaire frustrated with Trump.
1:02.4	He entered the race with significant fundraising experience for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton,
1:08.1	and also for many environmental causes.
1:11.3	He started a political group NextGen that focuses on getting young people to vote for
1:16.3	Democrats and environmental candidates.
1:19.6	Tom's wealth comes from his decades as a hedge fund manager at Farallon Capital, which
1:24.1	specialized in distressed assets, assets that people often sell at below market price
1:29.9	for quick cash.
1:32.0	Some of his investments were in big fossil fuel projects.
1:35.5	Tom left Farallon Capital in 2012 before becoming a full-time environmental activist and
1:41.6	political donor.
1:43.8	After the presidential campaign in 2021, he announced
1:46.8	a return to finance through galvanize climate solutions. In September, Galvanize announced
	...

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