Articles by Akshat Rathi

Akshat Rathi is London-based reporter for Bloomberg News. He has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Oxford, and a BTech in chemical engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai. Previously, Akshat was a senior reporter at Quartz and a science editor at The Conversation. He has also worked for The Economist and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His writings have also been published in Nature, The Hindu, The Guardian, Ars Technica, and Chemistry World, among others.

Insurance Helped 46,000 Indian Women Avoid Deadly Work During Heat Waves

In the city of Ahmedabad in western India, temperatures climbed above 43C (109F) every day between May 19 and May 25, creating deadly hot working conditions for many of the laborers who keep the local economy humming. For 40-year-old Lataben …

Most Nations Aiming for Net-Zero Fail to Meet Targets, Study Shows

A new scientific assessment of government commitments to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions found most lack credibility and would put the world on track to experience catastrophic global warming by the end of this century. About 90% of net-zero plans by …

Finding Ways to Get Polluters to Pay for Climate Damages

The biggest achievement at the annual United Nations climate summit last year was committing to create a fund that would compensate the poorest cop28 for destruction wrought by global warming. One of the questions at the upcoming COP28 summit will …

Climate Is Forcing the Most Risk-Aware Industry to Reinvent Itself

When it comes to climate impacts, the frontline of the finance industry is insurance. Last year’s payout from damages caused by extreme-weather events totaled $120 billion—about the same as the economic output of Kenya. And that’s a 50% increase over …

5 Key Takeaways From Latest United Nations Report on Climate Change

Today, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered its latest comprehensive report on the state of global climate science—just the sixth in the body’s more than 30-year history. The report’s 200-plus authors distilled 14,000 individual studies to produce …

Coronavirus Pandemic Reveals the Science of Risk That Shapes Our Lives

Hours after the results of a risk model reached the public, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. President Donald Trump asked nearly 400 million people to upend their lives. A group of epidemiologists at Imperial College London published the …