š CAT Newsletter #208 - 2024-02-25
CAT 208 - 2023-02-25
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 208 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.
Remember you can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time - the link is at the bottom.
Stay safe & healthy š š š±
CAT Community News
š Get involved
What makes climate tech imperfectly beautiful to you?Ā S said:
The fact that we don't have it all figured out. The culture in tech companies is often about us knowing the 'right' solution. Both for building tech and internally in terms of team structures and how we collaborate as humans. But what's 'right' is highly subjective. And if we discard the notion of 'right' or 'wrong', we open up space for a much larger diversity of ideas. Things we can try collectively, improve, revise, shape, shift, and change. And there's beauty in this state of unknown and willingness to try.
š From the blog
Read all about our first completed mini grant project -Ā Sustainability, a surprisingly successful KPI: GreenOps survey resultsĀ - as well as our two new mini grant projects -Ā the Sustainable AI manifesto and case studies on how to become a climate-conscious proudct managerĀ - onĀ our blog.
#ļøā£ Slack highlights
- #mobility:Ā LĀ shared a podcast episodeĀ that asked 'What if there is a high-tech urban mobility revolution happening right under our noses, but we can't see it because the people who are bringing it to our city are mostly invisible to us?'
- #local-united-states:Ā CĀ posted about the upcoming presidential election andĀ shared a NY Times opinion piece
- #finance:Ā BĀ discovered ourĀ Finance Outline pageĀ and is now wonderingĀ why "Paris-aligned" ETFs are missing from the fossil free funds database?
š Help a CAT
MĀ is looking for resources or talksĀ about the carbon emissions of an average persons' digital activities\nLĀ is looking for folks who are part of or know aboutĀ tech worker unionsĀ inĀ #local-netherlands\nHĀ isĀ looking for recommendationsĀ for Berlin-based in-person professional development courses or coaches, around the topic of mathematics, data science, or people management
š CAT events
:round_pushpin: Mon, Feb 26 - London [in person]:Ā CAT co-owned event with Code Green London
:cat: Wed, Feb 28 - Americas, Europe, Africa:Ā CAT Open Organizing meetingĀ [more info]
:speech_balloon: Wed, Feb 28 - Americas, Europe, Africa:Ā Presentation discussion: Building a Greener Web
:round_pushpin: Thu, Feb 29 - Munich [in person]:Ā CAT meetup
Other local events were shared inĀ #local-southeast-asiaĀ #local-oregonĀ #local-new-yorkĀ #local-london
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, Mar 1. More info
Media, events, and news
šŗ CAT recommendations
š± A cutting from Branch
Open call for Branch Issue 8 (Spring 2024)
The next issue of Branch will be released at the end of April 2024 and sets out to explore the theme 'Finding beauty in the imperfect'. We'd love to hear your reflections on what makes climate tech imperfectly beautiful to you. Our aim through collecting these reflections is to present a set of short, diverse perspectives and stimulate exploration. There are no right or wrong answers, and the phrase "climate tech" is deliberately open for you to freely interpret.
ā¶ļø CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
Planet A: How the military keeps its CO2 footprint secret
It's almost impossible to pin down how much the military emits globally. We are talking about a sector with a budget of 2.2 trillion dollars using helicopters, tanks, ships, fighter planes. And none of these CO2 emissions have to be reported. This is a story about one of the biggest blindspots of climate change and what we can do to change that.
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: 2024 trends: Frontier Forum: Diving into the booming transferable tax credit market
Sexy as it sounds, tax credits are one of the ways climate projects get built. It's been a year and a half since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed, and in that time, we've seen $110 billion in planned investments for factories that are pumping out electric cars, batteries, solar modules, and wind towers.Ā Much of this activity is the result of a new shift in the US tax code that allows wind, solar, storage, hydrogen, carbon capture, and manufacturing tax incentives to be sold for cash. Stephen Lacey spoke with Alfred Johnson live during Latitude's Frontier Forum to address many of those questions ā and riff on how this new market is taking shape.
Carbon copy: Views on the $1.8 trillion clean energy economy
Global investments in the energy transition ā from the buildout of factories and power projects to project finance and government debt ā hit nearly $1.8 trillion last year.Ā That's almost as big as the GDP of South Korea. This week, we'll talk about what's growing, what's lagging, and what the trillion-dollar scale means at the ground level. Then, geoengineering is nudging closer to the mainstream of scientific and environmental discourse. Are we giving up, or just being realistic?
Volts: Nuclear? Perhaps!
Nuclear power is a subject that elicits a lot of strong emotions. (Anyone who's ever written about it online will be laughing at the understatement.) Depending on who you listen to, it is either the key to solving climate change or an irrelevant distraction, either the best form of clean electricity available or the worst, either a savior on the verge of a renaissance or a dinosaur desperately scrabbling for a few last subsidies. In this episode, I speak with Jigar Shah (head of DOEās Loan Programs Office) about all things nuclear, including its recent performance, the strategies that could revive and accelerate it, new nuclear technologies and what small modular reactors actually are, and the role that nuclear will play in a decarbonized economy.
Environment Variables: Greening Serverless
Chris Adams is joined by special guest Kate Goldenring, Senior Software Engineer at Fermyon. Together, they ask the real questions "is serverless computing the greener choice?" and "if so, under what circumstances is this true?" Tune in for an illuminating conversation on the current state, news, and future of green computing, digging into the topics of cloud computing, soft allocation, WebAssembly, and more. See also the shownotes and transcript on github, where PR are gratefully accepted.
Greenio #32 - How systemic thinking can empower sustainable design? With Sylvie Daumal and Thorsten Jonas
How can we make systemic design operational for sustainable design? Systemic design is dedicated to handling complex systems, complex questions, and complex issues. In this episode, we dive deep into the world of systemic design and how it can help us increase digital sustainability. Don't miss out on insights from Sylvie Daumal (acclaimed author of 'Design d'expƩrience utilisateur' ) and Thorsten Jonas (founder of the Sustainable UX Network)
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.
Wed Mar 06 2024 - Business & Open SDGs data - A Hack Day
Wikirate is celebrating Open Data Day at its Berlin offices on March 6, with a hackathon investigating how German companies contribute to SDGs. The event is open to everyone passionate about sustainability, including developers who can leverage Wikirate's API.
Check #external-events in the CAT slack for more.
Thu Apr 25 2024 - Eco Compute 2024
Discover EcoCompute, the first engineering conference on sustainability in hardware & software! Join us in Munich on April 25-26 at the House of Communication. Immerse in cutting-edge talks, connect with industry leaders, explore practical solutions. https://www.eco-compute.io/
š° News Highlights
As an experiment, we're trying a new format for new highlights this week. We'll add a line explaining why the story is interesting, followed by a an intro of quote from the piece. Let us know if it helps!
Drilled Media: Hot Take: Fixing Media Is a Climate Solution
Why arenāt climate foundations working to remove the fossil fuel industryās influence from media? Amy Westervelt's long read delves into the history of fossil fuel influence on media, the creation of the advertorial by Herb Schmertz as a way to get Mobil's message into newspapers, and the challenges alternative forms of funding face. Really worth the read.
DataCenterDynamics: Greening software from the grass roots
Coders are going to have to get political if the industry doesn't start to take green software seriously. Like previous green revolutions, green software is at first being dismissed as impractical, or counter to economic realities. But green coders can see the potential. At a gathering in Berlin in November 2024, convened by the Sustainable Digital Alliance (SDIA), they called for transparency, for regulations, and for action. Max Schulze, founder of the SDIA, told programmers it is up to them: "We are the ones we've been waiting for," he said. "I would like to ask you to understand what you can do to connect with people to try it out and see what you can do."
Guardian: Revealed: the 1,200 big methane leaks from waste dumps trashing the planet
The huge leaks of the potent greenhouse gas will doom climate targets, experts say, but stemming them would rapidly reduce global heating. Landfills emit methane when organic waste such as food scraps, wood, card, paper and garden waste decompose in the absence of oxygen. A total of 1,256 methane super-emitter events occurred between January 2019 and June 2023, according to the new data. Pakistan, India and Bangladesh lead the list of nations with the most large leaks, followed by Argentina, Uzbekistan and Spain.
Bloomberg NEF: Liebreich - Net Zero Will Be Harder Than You Think ā And Easier. Part II: Easier
Welcome to the second part of my two-part article exploring the bull and bear cases for the net-zero transition. In September last year, I laid out the bear case, highlighting the Five Horsemen of the Transition that will make achieving net zero difficult, perhaps impossible. Now it is time to present the bull case ā the five forces even more powerful than the Five Horsemen which give cause for optimism. Say hello to the Five Superheroes of the Transition.
Fast Company: The newest company perk? An e-bike subscription
E-bike sales are surging. But for those who aren't ready to drop thousands of dollars on a high-end bike, some employers are starting to offer another option: an e-bike subscription as a company perk.
ClimateActionTech: Sustainability, a surprisingly successful KPI: GreenOps survey results
The findings from the first project supported by the CAT mini-grant fund is live, in the form of research you can use to share about how a drive to incorporating an awareness of climate manifests in the work of technologists. For the nerds: The underlying questions and data are linked for your own analysis too.
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.
TransitionZero - Product Manager - Ā£ 44,286.17 - Ā£51,808.55 - Permanent - Onsite only
We are a climate analytics not-for-profit established in 2021. We're building easy to use energy transition modelling software to give governments, businesses and investors the tools to understand and decide how to transition to carbon free energy. The Product Manager will work collaboratively with the Head of Product on the product strategy and roadmap for our energy systems modelling software. A key aspect of the role will be to drive usage of and engagement with the product.
TransitionZero - Product Owner - Ā£44,286.17 - Ā£51,808.55 - Permanent - Onsite only
We are a climate analytics not-for-profit established in 2021. We're building easy to use energy transition modelling software to give governments, businesses and investors the tools to understand and decide how to transition to carbon free energy. The Product Owner will work collaboratively with the Head of Product on our energy systems modelling software to collate, analyse, prioritise and translate requirements into user stories and detailed specifications for implementation by front-end and back-end development teams.
Icebreaker One - Senior Project Manager - Perseus - Up to Ā£550/day - Contract - 2.5 days/wk to December 2024 - Totally remote
There are more than 5.9 million Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, accounting for an estimated Ā£2.3 trillion in turnover. However, there is not yet a standard for SMEs to follow when reporting greenhouse gas emissions. Perseus is developing whole-of-market solutions to create rapidly scalable, low-effort, low-friction sustainability reporting. As part of this work, Bankers for Net Zero (B4NZ) and Icebreaker One are running Steering, Advisory and Working Groups in 2024 to inform the development of an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data ecosystem which accelerates the transition to net zero. The Senior Project Manager will play a key role in ensuring we meet our goal of a working pilot implementation by the end of 2024. Applications close 9am UK time, March 4.
Twist - Senior Fullstack Dev - 75-90k - Permanent - Totally remote
Twist is a software company that is helping unlock financing sustainable assets and innovative business models. Think electric truck, heat pumps and batteries. Our role is to assist banks in effectively deploying debt capital towards these ventures. By compiling comprehensive risk and environmental data, we enable banks to accurately assess, monitor and simulate both the risk and impact of their investments. Read about our mission here.
We are looking for a Full Stack Developer to join our small team to help build the Twist platform. You'll be part of a core team that's responsible for the full software development life cycle, from conception to deployment. We need a candidate who is comfortable owning and running what they build. We're looking for someone whose comfortable with some or all of the technologies we use.
Elemental Excelerator - Senior Investment Analyst - $67,100 - $108,300 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Elemental is looking for a highly organized, experienced, and mission-driven individual to join the Portfolio Team. The Senior Investment Analyst will play a crucial role in identifying, evaluating, and supporting investments in climate tech companies. The successful candidate will be responsible for conducting thorough due diligence, financial analysis, market research, and providing strategic insights to drive investment decisions that align with our mission and goals. For this position, we are looking for an individual with strong financial acumen and a demonstrated passion for working with climate companies who can support our due diligence efforts on startups working across the full stack of climate tech financing options, including venture capital, debt and equity financing, and project finance.
Global Witness - Senior Data Investigations Advisor - Ā£53,856 - Permanent -
Are you looking for an opportunity to put your data skills to use in the fight against climate change? The climate and human rights NGO Global Witness is looking for a new Senior Data Investigation Advisor to work closely with our Forests campaign.
Our Data Investigators have used a diverse range of tools and techniques, including data visualisation, data analysis, bots, and interactive storytelling, to highlight the role the role of corporations in worsening the climate crisis. The role will find engaging and robust ways of analysing and presenting the results from financial and deforestation data. Our Data Investigators have worked with the Forests team to produce reports such as Banks, Beef and the Brazilian Amazon, and tools such as our Brazil Big Beef Watch bot.
Technical University of Berlin - Research Software Engineer for Open Source PyPSA Energy System Modelling Tool - E13 TV-L (4188-6037 ā¬/month gross, depending on experience) - Contract - Flexible - remote ok
You will help develop Python for Power System Analysis (PyPSA), one of the leading open source energy modelling frameworks. PyPSA is used around the world by various research institutes, network operators, consultancies, governmental and non-governmental organisations to understand future energy infrastructure requirements for reaching climate neutrality.
https://github.com/pypsa/pypsa
The position is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) via its research software funding initiative. You will perform regular software maintenance tasks, improve the user-friendliness of the PyPSA toolbox, work towards enhanced test coverage and better validation of all functionality, develop new functionality to improve accessibility, extend training materials and documentation, review and integrate community contributions, support the user and developer communities, simplify and refactor parts of the code base, prepare new software releases, and organise annual user meetings.
Support our work
You can support us financially onĀ Open Collective.