🌍 CAT Newsletter 243 - 2024-10-27
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 243 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
💰 Apply for a mini grant
Got a project in mind for 2025? Applications are open for our next round of mini grants! Apply through this form and your project will be evaluated in December. More info
The mini-grant program is funded by CAT donations. If you want to see more of these, donating via OpenCollective is the fastest easiest way to support this work.
🐾 Show your CAT PAWS
What did you get up to in 2024? Share Projects, Actions, Wins, or Stuff you learned at CAT (PAWS!) by adding a slide to our CAT member PAWS presentation. Some of these slides will be part of our 2024 - year in review presentation which is shared and celebrated publicly.
🧠 Knowledge base deepdive
Greener Events: Involved in event planning in your workplace or community? Log in into the CAT knowledge base with your CAT Slack account to explore tips and resources for planning greener events, and add your own tips to help fellow CATs green their events.
📅 CAT events
If you want to explore the intersection of climate action in tech and generative AI, you can attend the following community discussions as part of the CAT Generative AI Exploratorium:
Wed, Nov 6 - Part 1 - 💬 Questioning [online]
Wed, Nov 13 - Part 2 - 📚 Learning [online]
Wed, Nov 20 - Part 3 - 🐱 Practicing [online]
Wed, Nov 27 - Part 4 - 🌊 Reflecting [online]
The Exploratorium events are part of a funded CAT mini grant project run by @Alja Isaković. Learn more in #gen-ai-exploratorium or on the CAT blog.
🍩 Community networking
Due to inactivity from a lot of folks in the channel, #cat-roulette is doing a clean up! Facilitated by channel host @Brett Duboff, all members will be removed on Fri, Nov 1st. Rejoin the channel after Nov 1st to participate in Donut matches every other week again. The next round of matches will go out on Fri, Nov 15th. More info
Media, events, and news
😺 CAT recommendations
▶️ CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
Planet A: Why This Unusual Pattern May Save the Rainforests
The Choco region in northwest Ecuador is hosting a groundbreaking experiment to try and help it's rainforests recover from rampant deforestation. A multinational team is planting small "tree islands" to attract natural seed dispersers. It's an innovative approach that we'll take a close look at, from above and within.
🎤 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: Vinod Khosla is trying to change Elon Musk's mind on Trump, the economy and climate
As Republican and Democratic canvassers make their final push to get out the US vote, the famed tech investor Vinod Khosla has been making the case for Vice President Kamala Harris with a very specific audience in mind: Elon Musk. On the social media platform owned by his fellow billionaire, Khosla has pressed the case in a series of X posts that former President Donald Trump is the wrong candidate for the future of the planet. Although Khosla is a former Republican, he says in an interview that he will be voting for Harris.
Outrage And Optimism 267. The Rio Trio: A Cocktail of COPs
This week, our hosts dive into The Rio Trio! No, this is not the name of a new cocktail but three COPs (Biodiversity in Colombia, Climate in Azerbaijan and Desertification in Saudi Arabia) which are about to happen back-to-back. Plus the plastics treaty negotiations in South Korea.
Christiana also asks the question: If we had a blank slate now, would it make more sense to kick start a process based on all nine planetary boundaries? Would this help us focus holistically on the interconnected challenges we face? Sit back and listen as the hosts try to make sense of this negotiating super season for the planet and all its peoples.
Catalyst with Shayle Khan: The complex path to market for low-carbon cement
AI is enabling a multitude of solutions across power, industry, and transportation. But AI energy demands are increasingly stressing the electric grid — creating a bottleneck for growth and new challenges for clean energy supply.
In this Frontier Forum, Stephen Lacey explores all sides of the AI-energy nexus with talks with Chase Lochmiller, the co-founder and CEO. They discuss innovations in data center design, why the energy demands of AI could be higher than projected, and why that shouldn't scare us.
The Week in Green Software: Backstage: Remembering Abhishek Gupta: How does AI and ML Impact Climate Change?
In this episode, we honor the memory of Abhishek Gupta, who was an instrumental figure in the Green Software Foundation and a Co-Chair of the Standards Working Group. Abhishek's work was pivotal in the development of the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) Specification, now adopted globally.
We are airing an old episode that featured Abhishek Gupta, Episode 5 of Environment Variables. Where host Chris Adams is joined by Will Buchanan of Azure ML (Microsoft), Abhishek Gupta; the chair of the Standards Working Group for the Green Software Foundation and Lynn Kaack, assistant professor at the Hertie School in Berlin to discuss how artificial intelligence and machine learning impact climate change.
Green IO #47a - The Microsoft Azure dilemma with Holly and William Alpine - Learnings from a 10K employee grassroots sustainability initiative
They both went to this job interview to hone their skills, and got a dream job at Microsoft! In its fast-growing and AI-pioneered Azure division and with a romance on top of it… 💕nYet several years later, Holly and Will Alpine decided to both resign. Why? On sustainability ground, and more specifically for the lack of support on the "enabled emissions" issues. 🕵️nHolly and Will are now the Bonnie & Clyde of Azure and they provide us with an insider perspective, in a nuanced and well-documented way, on this "elephant in the room" in all big tech companies: are their sustainability claims offset by the so-called enabled emissions? 🐘
📅 Submitted events
Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.
Tue Oct 29 2024 - Adapt NSW Forum - Pathways, Intersections & Evolution
AdaptNSW Forum - world class adaptation presenters, immersive workshops and interactive sessions. This year dedicated to catalysing action. We're bringing climate change adaptation specialists together for 2 days thought-provoking conversation & collective change making.
Wed Nov 13 2024 - Mastering PR and Public Speaking for Your Climate Startup
Two fantastic speakers, on how to get eyes on your work and grow your impact. Founder of Climate Connection, Juliette Devillard brings together individuals passionate about climate. Abi Smith from Harpswood PR, works with businesses making the world cleaner, fairer and better.
Wed Nov 20 2024 - DIGITAL IMPACT PITCH : Discover the impact of digital & AI on our lives and planet + how to act !
The Digital Impact Pitch is a 60 to 90 minute interactive conference which aims to help you discover what is hidden behind our daily use of multiple digital objects and technology in general.
Wed Nov 27 2024 - Australian Climate Tech Connect & Awards 2024
One-of-a-kind opportunity to connect with investors, founders and industry leaders while celebrating the achievements of the Australian climate tech industry in 2024.
Tue Dec 10 2024 - The RIPE Green Tech Hackathon
Join the next RIPE NCC hackathon focused on Green Tech this December! This time, our goals are to develop tools, policies and protocols to reduce the environmental impact of Internet infrastructure. Apply now to join and help us organise this Sustain-a-thon!
📰 News Highlights
Grist: The climate stakes of the Harris-Trump election
With early voting already underway and two weeks before Election Day, when voters will decide between Vice President Kamala Harris, who has called climate change an "existential threat," and former President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a "hoax," Grist's editorial staff presents a climate-focused voter's guide — a package of analyses and predictions about what the next four years may bring from the White House, depending on who wins.
Heatmap News: Why Climate's Hardest Problem Might Need a Carbon Market
Imagine you're a corporate sustainability exec and your company is planning to build a new data center. You've managed to convince the higher-ups to pay extra to use low-carbon building materials. But when you meet with the general contractor hired for the job, they don't actually know of any low-carbon concrete purveyors in the area. Concrete is a hyper-local industry by necessity — you can't hold the stuff for more than 90 minutes or so before it hardens and becomes unusable.
So here you are, one of the few people with the power and budget to pay a premium for zero-emissions concrete — a product that must become the standard if we are to stop climate change — and you can't even get your hands on it.
This is, more or less, the situation Microsoft has found itself in.
Rest of World: India's electric cab companies can't find enough cars to put on the road
In 2022, BluSmart planned to put 100,000 electric cabs on the road by 2025. Last year, the company scaled down its goal to 10,000 EVs by early 2024 — presently, it has around 8,000. BluSmart declined to comment on its EV supply. Experts told Rest of World that there aren't enough existing manufacturers for electric cabs to keep pace with rising demand. Growth has been slower than anticipated for most electric-cab companies, due to a shortage of vehicles.
Bloomberg: The Climate Short - Hedge Funds Pile Up Huge Bets Against Green Future
The $5 trillion industry's move against clean energy and green technology may prove more damaging than political pushback over "woke" capitalism. Despite vast green stimulus packages in the US, Europe and China, more hedge funds are on average net short batteries, solar, electric vehicles and hydrogen than are long those sectors; and more funds are net long fossil fuels than are shorting oil, gas and coal, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of positions voluntarily disclosed by roughly 500 hedge funds to Hazeltree, a data compiler in the alternative investment industry.
Datacentre Dynamics: Study shows data center cooling systems can power wind turbines
A recent study has demonstrated that small-scale wind turbines can generate electricity from wasted wind produced by chilling machines, after a trial at a data center in Colombia.
"HVAC systems use fans to expel the warm air from indoor environments to the outdoors," the study said. "This expelled air represents a consistent and potentially untapped wind resource for electricity conversion."
Green Web Foundation: Notes from Green IO London Conference
Earlier this year, Fershad Irani, our Green Web Studio developer spoke at Green IO Conference in Singapore, about understanding digital carbon emissions. This September it was Chris, our executive director’s turn, speaking at Green IO Conference London. The event was a significant step up in size from last year, with 18 talks in a single track format. In this post, Chris shares some of our key takeaways and highlights from the event.
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. Remember: if you're looking for advice finding a role, check our #climate-careers channel.
Icebreaker One - Senior Project Manager - Up to £550/day - Contract - Totally remote
Icebreaker One is a non-profit that helps organisations across the economy share data more effectively to achieve their net-zero targets. Our programmes are collaborative efforts with a wide range of stakeholders to develop legal, technical and procedural solutions for trusted data sharing. We have been successful in winning new projects for the second half of 2024 and consequently need an experienced project manager to join our existing PM team to ensure our work is delivered on time and within scope.
4WARD's Global Climate Community - Climate "Local" Community Coordination Superstar - Unpaid Fellowship - Intern Fellowship - Totally remote
4WARD's has a part-time, unpaid fellowship to become a Climate Community Coordination Superstar to help plan, promote & support our 100s of local city meetup leaders.
Growth For Impact (hiring for client) - Senior Consultant - Climate Change & Sustainability - A$60T - A$95T/yr - Permanent - Onsite only
The client is one of the largest network of assurance, tax and consulting firms. Primary requirement-
- Carrying out sustainability baseline and materiality assessments and developing sustainability Roadmaps and Strategies.
- Working with the client to collect their data and develop a carbon account/inventory or Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 GHG emissions, as well climate risk assessments.
- Support clients in preparing for mandatory sustainability-related disclosure compliance in Australia and abroad.
- Developing Modern Slavery Statements. Qualifications- 3+ year's sustainability experience preferably within Professional Services or a relevant industry position
Vizzuality - Back End Engineer - NodeJS - 30.000 to 49.000 Euros per year - Permanent - Totally remote
Are you a passionate Back End Engineer looking to create meaningful change? Join us on our mission toward a fairer future
At Vizzuality, we develop innovative data-driven tools for global organizations addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequality.
What we're seeking - Proficiency in NodeJS/TypeScript (mid-level or senior) -Experience with SQL databases & cloud infrastructure -A problem-solver who excels in communication -A growth mindset with a thirst for learning
For more information about our culture and the full benefits list, please visit our playbook. https://playbook.vizzuality.com/
Vizzuality - Front End Engineer - €30,000 - €49,000 Euros year - Permanent - Totally remote
We're on the lookout for a talented Front-End Engineer! Join us on our mission and help us create data-driven tools for organizations tackling climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequality.
What we're seeking - Proficiency in ReactJS/TypeScript (mid-level or senior) Experience with modern front-end frameworks (Next.js, Redux) Passion for solving complex challenges and delivering user-focused solutions
Green Angel Ventures - Support and Development Engineer - £24,000 - £28,000 - Permanent - Totally remote
Green Angel Ventures is the reference early stage investor for UK climate innovation. We specialise in the fight against climate change.
The Support and Development Engineer is responsible for maintaining and improving IT systems and processes, for helping build them to support future growth, and for supporting our staff members. The role is quite broad, and will change over time.
Elemental Impact - Entrepreneur in Residence: Community Impact (Contractor) - $150/hr - Contract - Flexible - remote ok
We are looking for someone who is deeply knowledgeable about the experience of building a responsible community engagement practice in or for a climate tech company or similar context within corporate, and who can be a diligent partner for our entrepreneurs!
Support our work
You can support us financially on Open Collective.