š CAT Newsletter #206 - 2023-02-11
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 206 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 outĀ our onboarding checklist.
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CAT Community News
š Get involved
Branch Issue 8: The call for contributions is open!
Branch MagazineĀ is looking for your stories on how tech has enabled you to drive climate action, and empowered you to make a more sustainable world at any scale.Ā More info\nThere are two ways you can contribute.
- QuickĀ āĀ submit a reflectionĀ on what makes climate tech imperfectly beautiful to you.
- More involvedĀ āĀ submit an ideaĀ for a full piece.
#ļøā£ Slack channel highlights
- #greener-webdev: A few folks are chatting aboutĀ The Performance Inequality Gap, 2024Ā ā an articleĀ MĀ shared inĀ this thread.
- #films-books-media:Ā AĀ shared a few climate-related short storiesĀ here. Have a read and share your thoughts!
- #mobility: Channel hostĀ RĀ is thinking about car clubs and new mobility startups wondering whether they are great or terrible.Ā What do you think?
A whole bunch of CATs bumped into each other inĀ #local-belgiumĀ andĀ J's post inspired CATs to share where inĀ #local-netherlandsĀ they are based.
š CAT events
:round_pushpin: Mon, Feb 26 - London [in person]:Ā CAT co-owned event with Code Green London
Other local events were shared inĀ #local-ukĀ andĀ #local-new-york.
š© Community networking
Get to know other CATs and make some friends in the community.Ā Every 2 weeks, we match 2-3 CATs so you can connect over a quick 30-minute call. Simply joinĀ #cat-roulette, pick your region and wait for a message fromĀ DonutĀ about your match! Our next round of matches will go out onĀ Fri, Feb 16. More info
Media, events, and news
šŗ CAT recommendations
š¤Ā Podcasts
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
Catalyst with Shayle Khan: Whatās really happening in the U.S. EV market?
Sales are growing fast despite gloomy headlines. What gives? In this episode, Shayle talks to BloombergNEF EV analyst Corey Cantor. They talk about the changing outlook on the speed of EV adoption as the focus shifts from early adopters to the mass market. They talk through the persistent challenges EVs face, like slow charger rollout and lack of more affordable options.
Environment Variables: The Week in Green Software - Embodied Carbon
This Week in Green Software, host Chris Adams is joined by Gabi Beyer and Brendan Kamp from re:cinq to talk about the recent initiatives to and consequences of the prolonging of the lifecycle of technology. The challenges of measuring carbon emissions in personal laptops and cloud services are discussed, highlighting the complexities of quantifying environmental impact, as well as companies reporting on these metrics. Tune in for a lively discussion on sustainable software development.
Greenio: #31 - Estimating IT footprint: the ABB Motion case study with Fiona Leibundgut and Thomas Mosser
In many big corporations, IT is never number one, number two, even number three for GHG emission sources (and other environmental factors). But everyone working in the digital sustainability sector knows that, actually, little streams make big rivers with the digital sector accouting for around 4% of global emissions. In this episode we explore a very concrete case of measuring IT footprint in a massive corporation: ABB Motion with Thomas Mosser (ABB) and Fiona Leibundgut (SparkIT Consulting). How to kick start, how to leverage the Resilio tool which they chose, how to scale, etc. And the insights shared can be used in smaller organisations as well!
Carbon copy: Pricing and tech trends shaping the booming global storage market
The storage market is full of surprises. Last year, global storage installations were a third higher than expected, driven mostly by Chinese policy to attach batteries to renewables. Meanwhile, a ramp-up in manufacturing is causing oversupply ā and a potential shakeout for smaller battery makers. This week on The Carbon Copy, we feature a conversation with Yayoi Sekine pricing, tech, manufacturing, and deployment trends that are shaping battery storage.
š Submitted events
Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.
Fri Feb 09 2024 - DIGITAL IMPACT PITCH : Discover the impact of digital on our lives & planet + how to act !
The Digital Impact Pitch is a short interactive conference aiming to explain the hidden part of digital technology and its implications on planet and people. It gives also the participants a better understanding on what types of responsible practices matter most.
Thu Feb 15 2024 - Mastering Carbon Reporting: A Webinar for UK SMEs #2
On behalf of the British Business Bank, Icebreaker One researched 270 carbon accounting and reporting tools tailored for SMEs. Join our webinars to dive into the report, find out what we learned, and understand which solution is most suitable for your business.
Tue Feb 20 2024 - From Observations to Impact: A Deep Dive into the Impact Framework
Impact Framework is a way to accurately compute and report the environmental impacts of software applications.
In this talk, Asim Hussain discuss some of the challenges with software measurement and then dive deep into Impact Framework and how to measure software using it.
Thu Feb 22 2024 - Gallery Debate Nights: Climate Series
Welcome to a special evening of Climate Debates at the Strike-Slip Gallery opening. This is the event, where we put away our titles and come together as friends, who have a lot to say about the current state of environment. Let's debate and spark transformative ideas together
Check #external-events in the CAT slack for more.
š° News Highlights
Climate Analytics: Will 2024 be the year emissions start falling?
The IPCC says we need to peak global greenhouse gas emissions before 2025 to limit warming to 1.5ĀŗC. There's a lot of analysis out there on peaking; we sift through the stories to see if (and when) emissions could peak. First up, some promising signs that a peak is on its way.
Tech Carbon Standard: proposing the tech carbon standard
A proposed Technology Carbon Standard that aims to provide a unified standard for understanding, quantifying, and reducing carbon emissions from an organisation's technology landscape. Outlining a standardised methodology for attributing emissions to different aspects of the tech estate enables organisations to identify priority areas and opportunities to mitigate emissions effectively.
Electrek: It begins: Ethiopia set to become first country to ban internal combustion cars
Ethiopia spent nearly $6 billion to import fossil fuels last year ā with more than half of that spending going to fuel vehicles. In response, Ethiopia's Transport and Logistics Ministries have announced that automobiles cannot enter Ethiopia, unless they are electric.
Carbon Brief: Analysis - How do the EU farmer protests relate to climate change?
From Berlin and Paris, to Brussels and Bucharest, European farmers have driven their tractors to the streets in protest over recent weeks.Ā According to reports, these agricultural protesters from across the European Union have a series of concerns, including competition from cheaper imports, rising costs of energy and fertiliser, and environmental rules.Ā
Carbon Brief has analysed the key demands from farmer groups in seven countries to determine how they are related to greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, biodiversity or conservation.Ā
Mobi News: Seoul launches a "Climate Card" offering unlimited access to transport
From January 2024, for just 62,000 won/month (around 43 euros), Climate Card holders will have unlimited access to almost all of Seoul's public transport network. Subways, buses, trains and soon other modes of transport for unrivalled freedom of movement. Inspired by the Deutschlandticket in Germany and the Rail Pass in Franceā¦ this monthly card promises to simplify citizens' lives, while significantly reducing carbon emissions.
Lemonde.fr: Paris voters back proposal to triple parking fees for SUV drivers
Paris voters on Sunday, February 4, backed a proposal from the city's socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo to triple parking charges on hefty SUV-style cars, according to official results from city hall. Parisians voted 54.55% in favor of charging cars weighing 1.6 metric tons or more ā¬18 ($19.50) per hour for parking in the city center, or ā¬12 further out. Fully electric cars will have to top two metric tons to be affected, while people living or working in Paris, taxi drivers, tradespeople, health workers, and people with disabilities will all be exempt.
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EE News: 'Under the radar': Biden is pushing 2 big climate rules as first term ends.
As the clock ticks down to the end of Biden's first term, the administration is preparing to use the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) ā which governs how federal agencies spend their massive budgets ā to add another boost to lower-carbon goods and services. Federal agencies spend an estimated $630 billion a year on goods that range from the mundane, like notebooks, to the extraordinary, such as warships. If guided by new regulations that prioritize products with lower carbon footprints, the government could accelerate the uptake of goods like electric vehicles, efficient heating and cooling units, and cement that emits fewer greenhouse gases.
Guardian: Atlantic Ocean circulation nearing 'devastating' tipping point, study finds
Collapse in system of currents that helps regulate global climate would be at such speed that adaptation would be impossible. See also, the post from the lead author, going into more detail, with FAQs.
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.
RouteZero - Full-stack software engineer - Ā£30-35k - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
RouteZero is hiring a full-stack developer (Flutter and Typescript). We're decarbonising our customer's largest source of emissions: travel. We aim to prevent millions of tonnes of COā entering the atmosphere by helping customers deploy the most effective carbon-cutting actions, from low-carbon travel booking to carbon budgets and social influence tools.
Supercritical - Director of Climate Science; Climate Scientist - Director of Climate Science: Ā£110k - Ā£130k; Climate Scientist: Ā£52,5k - Ā£62,5k - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
You will play a vital role in helping us achieve our goal of removing 500m tonnes over the next 10 years and to become the number one marketplace for carbon removal by volume globally by 2025.
Support our work
You can support us financially onĀ Open Collective.