February 19, 2023

🌍 CAT Newsletter #158 - 2023-02-19

Hey CATs,

Welcome to issue 158 of the climateAction.tech (CAT) Newsletter - your weekly summary of what’s happening inside the CAT community, and in the wider world of climate and tech. New to CAT or looking to re-discover the community? Try out our onboarding checklist.

Remember you can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time - the link is at the bottom.

Stay safe & healthy 😌 💚 🐱

CAT Community News

#️⃣ Slack channel highlights

• #greener-design: Tristin summarized Don Norman’s discussion Design for a better world on Outline. Thanks so much!

• #greener-data-ai: Nico shared a Wired article about the generative AI race and emissions associated with it. Share your thoughts in the thread.

• Lots of our #local channels have new messages! Head to #local-austria, #local-california, #local-india, #local-new-york, #local-san-francisco-bay-area, #local-uk, and #local-vancouver for more, or start a conversation in your own #local channel.

📚 Branch magazine reading group

It’s voting time for the next article! Vote in this post in #2-global-dialogue.

📆 Upcoming CAT events

If you’re looking at organising event in your part of the world, you can ask for help in #events. There’s a CAT event support kit, sample deck and so on to help.

☕ CAT Coffee (pacific-friendly)
Tue, Feb 21 • PT 4pm | MEX 6pm | ET 7pm
Wed, Feb 22 • CT 8am | JST 9am | AEDT 11am | NZDT 1pm
Networking session hosted by @veronica.

☕ CAT Coffee (western): Share your project / idea / win
Thu, Feb 23 • PT 10am | ET 1pm | GMT 6pm | CET 7pm | IST 10:30pm
Share your project / idea / win session hosted by @Sandra. Sign up for a slot here.

🇲🇽 Green Your Software México: Cómo Desarrollar (Y Vender) Software Verde
Tue, Feb 28 • PT 5:30pm | MEX 7:30pm | ET 8:30pm

▶️ Watch Party: In Conversation: Kate Raworth and Janine Benyus
Thu, Mar 2 • PT 10:30am | MEX 12:30pm | ET 1:30pm | GMT 6:30pm | CET 7:30pm | IST 11pm

🍩 Community networking

Our next #cat-roulette matches are going out on Fri, Mar 3! Join the channel, pick your region and get matched with other CATs every other week! It’s a nice way to get to know other CATs, and you can start and stop at any time.

🎬 CAT videos

CAT videos, geddit? 10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to topics related to climate.

Are kites the next big thing for wind power?

High up in the sky we find gigantic resources of energy which are untapped so far. How can we harvest these hidden and never-ending resources? Companies are racing to exploit the potential of this high-altitude wind power.

✋ Looking for volunteers

☕️ CAT Coffee volunteer • 2hrs / month

#️⃣ Channel host • 20min / week

Check out our Trello board for more open roles and if you’ve got any ideas for projects, or feedback on existing projects, please let us know in our #community-feedback channel!

📆 CAT Submitted Events

Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.

Check #events in the CAT slack for more.

Thu Feb 23 2023 - Rising Tide Collective x Terra.do Job Fair

Discover European startups from Rising Tide Collective, scaling cutting-edge climate solutions, based in the UK, Germany and beyond.

Tue Feb 28 2023 - Getting to a fossil free internet by 2030

Chris Adams from the Green Web Foundation will be giving a tour of the tech and policy changes needed to get us to a fossil free internet by 2030.

Wed Mar 01 2023 - Careers in Climate Nonprofits

Join top not-for-profits/NGOs from the climate action ecosystem that are creating large-scale impact.

Thu Mar 02 2023 - Cross-public sector Climate Work Show & Tell

Public servants like you, talking about their climate efforts, failures, successes and learnings, no matter how small, and even if those efforts aren’t in their job title or formal objectives.

Mon Mar 13 2023 - The Digital Collage workshop

The Digital Collage is a 3h playful and collaborative online workshop. The aim of the workshop is to raise awareness and train participants on the environmental issues of digital technologies. The workshop also aims to outline solutions for more sustainability in Tech.

Mon Mar 20 2023 - OPF Academy

We need more people working on climate and we need them now. OPF Academy is led by climate experts to immediately level-up your climate and sustainability skills and apply them to impactful projects all over the world. Apply to build your climate expertise in 6 weeks!

🎤 Podcasts

The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don’t forget, if you’re looking around, there’s a list of podcasts maintained by CATs

Zero with Akshat Rathi: The new climate race between EU and US, with Jennifer Morgan

As Germany’s climate envoy, Jennifer Morgan stands alongside John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua of China as one of the world’s top climate negotiators. But she is no typical bureaucrat - before taking up the position of envoy, she headed up Greenpeace, known for its political activism and climate stunts. Bloomberg Green’s Akshat Rathi sat down with Jennifer to ask her whether the EU needs to compete more aggressively with the US on climate tech, how Germany is justifying the expansion of its coal mines, and why reforming the World Bank is vital for helping developing countries deal with climate impacts

GreenIO #12: Vineeta Greenwood and Gavin Shinfield - Digital Sustainability: The view from Agencyland

In this episode, Gaël Duez went to Argentina (or did he?) to discuss digital agencies. Guests Vineeta Greenwood and Gavin Shinfield share a passion for communicating sustainability in ways that their clients can connect to.

Catalyst with Shayle Khan: Strong opinions on small modular reactors

New nuclear construction in the U.S. is facing challenges. Shayle talks to one nuclear tech CEO about what we can do about it.

A matter of degrees: The Journey of Justice40

This episode, we talk to EJ activists and federal policymakers about Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which directs 40% of the overall benefits of climate investments toward disadvantaged communities. We explore the decades of organizing that led to this moment, and what it will take now to fulfill the promise of the Justice40 Initiative.

📰 News Highlights

Why are BP, Shell, and Exxon suddenly backing off their climate promises?

Climate advocates say that Big Oil’s recent moves should serve as a wake-up call for investors and regulators that oil companies plan to double down on fossil fuels for as long as it’s profitable.

US will see more new battery capacity than natural gas generation in 2023

2023 will also likely see the last nuclear additions for a while.

Tech Giants ‘Cashing In on Climate Delay’ Fuels Demand for Tobacco-Style Ad Ban

A report published Wednesday revealed the extent to which Big Tech platforms profit from selling advertising space to climate-wrecking oil and gas corporations, prompting calls for “tobacco-style” ad rules. Link to full report

Colombia announces halt on fossil fuel exploration for a greener economy

The minister for mines, Irene Vélez, told world leaders the country will shift away from fossil fuels to begin a sustainable chapter.

India’s Discovery of Lithium Reserve Triggers Hopes, Worries

On February 9, the Geological Survey of India confirmed that 5.9 million tons of inferred lithium resources have been established in Jammu and Kashmir, one of most politically volatile regions in the country. This would place India 6 in thw world for lithium resources, ahead of china and behind Australia. See more analysis

A startup says it’s begun releasing particles into the atmosphere, in an effort to tweak the climate

Make Sunsets is already attempting to earn revenue for geoengineering, a move likely to provoke widespread criticism

Offset - transforming industrial sabotage into premium carbon credits

Many existing carbon offset markets act to maintain a status quo rather than address root causes of the climate catastrophe. In contrast, the Offset platform includes a registry of alternative offsets that focus on social exchanges and political actions in order to contribute to a program of highly financialized radical change.

World Bank chief resigns after climate stance misstep

World bank president David Malpass, who was appointed to the role by the then US president Donald Trump in 2019, had been facing mounting calls to step down after a series of missteps, including lacklustre plans for green investment, and appearing to deny climate science when confronted by a journalist.

💼 Jobs

Remember only jobs listing salary ranges are listed here - to get your job listed, you need to list a salary range. Folks can still look in the #jobs channel.

Furbnow - Multiple - £55k-£70k - Permanent -

Furbnow is scaling up home retrofits in the UK. We’re making houses lower carbon, cheaper to heat, and more comfortable!

Hiring for: Head of Growth - https://smrtr.io/cP_sR Full stack software engineer (python / ts) - https://smrtr.io/cMwnW

Foresight Management - Senior Project Engineer - Buildings - $85000 to $110000 - Permanent -

Foresight Management exists to champion energy management, accelerate sustainability, and increase profitability for our customers. The Senior Project Engineer will manage teams, provide technical expertise, and generally support the Building Performance team on all aspects of our engineering support services.

Circularise - Project Manager (Circularity/Sustainability) - 50k-55k Euros - Permanent -

Circularise is a supply chain traceability start-up founded in The Netherlands in 2016. We believe that end-to-end traceability holds the key to overcoming major challenges that society faces in areas such as Circular Economy, Environmental Pollution and Carbon Emissions. Therefore, it’s our mission to bring traceability to global supply chains and to accelerate world’s transition to a Circular Economy.

Singularity Energy - Backend Software Engineer - $110k – $140k, 0.05% – 0.25% equity - Permanent -

In order to decarbonize the grid, the world needs better carbon data and analytics. To support this mission, Singularity Energy is building the world’s highest quality view of historical, real-time, and forecasted grid carbon emissions. We’re looking for a backend engineer to own and implement new data and dashboard products, and to continue scaling and improving our backend data infrastructure.

Overstory - Technical Delivery Lead - €60,000 to €85,000 - Permanent -

We are a climate tech startup, using satellite imagery to understand trees and vegetation at scale. It’s an impactful role, wrangling data into insights enabling our customers to manage their vegetation better, reducing both wildfire and power outages. The Overstory team is genuinely lovely, caring about each other and the climate.