š CAT Newsletter 254 - 2025-02-09
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CAT 254 - 2025-02-09
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 254 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¢ Last call for responses
Last call for responses to theĀ CAT member survey! It doesn't matter if you've been a member of CAT for 5 days or 5 years, your feedback is massively valuable in shaping our community. Please take 2-3 minutes to leave your feedback. We will close the survey next Wed (Feb 12), so please fill it in before then. āļø
š§ Knowledge base deep dive
Greener Design: Get inspired to green your design practice by browsing this collection of resources, suggested actions, sustainable design principles, and more. Log into the CAT knowledge base with your CAT Slack account to challenge the way you design websites or other digital products, and learn to reflect on the broader impact and context of your work.
š© Community networking
#cat-roulette is back to help you make new connections within the community! Every 2 weeks, we match 2-3 CATs so you can connect over a quick 30-minute call. Join #cat-roulette, pick your region and wait for a message from Donut. The next round of matches will go out on Fri, Feb 21st. More info.
Media, events, and news
šŗ CAT recommendations
ā¶ļø CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
Bloomberg Originals: Inside the $1 Trillion Fight In An Exotic Indonesian Jungle
Carbon offsetsāa controversial tool companies use to try and make up for emissionsācould be worth as much as $1 trillion by 2050, according to Bloomberg NEF. But this lucrative sector has problems. Already plagued by dubious claims known as greenwashing, it faces new challenges like those at Indonesiaās Rimba Raya, one of the largest carbon offset projects in the world.
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
Zero: The UKās Ā£200 billion plan for carbon-free power by 2030
The UK government has pledged to achieve 95% clean power by 2030. It's an ambitious, tough goal ā and even tougher to accomplish while reducing energy prices. Chris Stark, head of the nationās Mission Control for Clean Power, says heās āconfidentā the UK can deliver. But at the same time, the Labour governmentās leaders are sending mixed signals on climate: They want to expand airports and may sign off on new oil fields in the North Sea. Stark tells Akshat Rathi why heās still certain the country can balance its carbon budget, and why itās important for politicians to show that green investments have economic benefits too.
Outrage And Optimism: How big oil is holding back progress on the Paris Climate Agreement
Christiana Figueres, the driving force behind the groundbreaking Paris Climate Agreement, reflects on the high-stakes negotiations that reshaped the global fight against climate change in the year that marks its ten-year anniversary. With the fate of the planet hanging in the balance, she reveals the relentless pushback from the fossil fuel lobby, and the ever-shifting geopolitical tensions that threaten progress. Will the world stay on course, or are we teetering on the edge of climate catastrophe? Plus, whether 2025 is the year the insurance industry reaches an existential crisis as climate-related weather events, like the LA fires, become uninsurable.
Green IO #50 - Is Eroom's law the future of Moore's law? with Tristan Nitot
(we got the link wrong in the last newsletter, so we're sharing it again this issue. Oops!)
Moore's law is dead! Long live Eroom's law!
This provocative statement from Tristan Nitot highlights the pivotal role of software engineers in our journey as an industry toward a sustainable and more frugal digital world. The majority of our old devices, from smartphones to desktop, still work. How come that we waste such a massive gathering of precious resources such as minerals, energy, water and even our human time which we use to manufacture and maintain them? What should we do to break the trend of electronic waste and the ever-increasing footprint of the IT sector on our physical world?Ā
Gael Duez sat down with Tristan Nitot to start answering these questions.
Environment Variables - Deep Green Technologies
In this episode of Environment Variables, host Chris Adams sits down with Mark Bjornsgaard of Deep Green to explore a transformative approach to data center design and sustainability. Mark shares insights into how Deep Green reimagines traditional data centers by co-locating them in urban areas to provide heat reuse for facilities like swimming pools, district heating systems, and industrial processes.
They discuss the challenges of planning and policy, the rise of high-density computing driven by AI, and the potential for data centers to become integral components of community infrastructure. Tune in to learn about the intersection of digital innovation and environmental responsibility, and how new business models can turn waste into opportunity.
š Submitted events
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š° News Highlights
Fast company: A million cars have disappeared: What NYC is like after one month of congestion pricing
New York Cityās congestion pricing program has been in place for one month, implementing tolls on drivers who enter certain, often gridlocked, areas of Manhattan. And so far, the results are āundeniably positive,ā transit officials say, with measurably reduced traffic and more commuters choosing public transit.
Itās the first such plan in the United States, though congestion pricing has been successfully used in London, Stockholm, Singapore, and other cities. And though business owners and residents there criticized the program before its pilot beganāmuch like they did in New Yorkāa majority of voters ended up making that toll permanent.
The Guardian: Scientists brace āfor the worstā as Trump purges climate mentions from websites
Donald Trumpās administration has started to remove or downgrade mentions of the climate crisis across the US government, with the websites of several major departments pulling down references to anything related to the climate crisis. Climate scientists said they were braced āfor the worstā.
MIT Technology Review: Inside the race to archive the US governmentās websites
Over the past three weeks, the new US presidential administration has taken down thousands of government web pages related to public health, environmental justice, and scientific research.
But as government web pages go dark, a collection of organizations are trying to archive as much data and information as possible before itās gone for good. The hope is to keep a record of what has been lost for scientists and historians to be able to use in the future.
Green Screen Network: Within Bounds: Limiting AI's environmental impact
Joint statement from civil society for the AI Action Summit Signed by over 120+ organizations. If you share our concerns and demands that AI systems be made compatible with our planetary boundaries, and are a civil society organization, can you can sign on here.
Financial Times: Jeff Bezosās $10bn Earth Fund cuts ties with climate group (archive link)
Jeff Bezosās $10bn philanthropic fund has stopped backing the worldās leading voluntary climate standard setter, following rising scrutiny over its influence on the body, in a move seen as the billionaireās latest effort to curry favour with US President Donald Trump.
According to three people familiar with the decision, the Bezos Earth Fund has ended its support for the Science Based Targets initiative, a globally renowned body that holds sway over how companies such as Apple and H&M can achieve a credible ānet zeroā label.
Nat Bullard: Decarbonization - 2021 Things, The Complex, Reagents
It's that time of year again - Nat Bullard's annual presentation on the state of decarbonization, is 200 slides of incredibly information and insight dense analysis. If you give any presentatio this year on climate, you will find something thought provoking to use.
š Papers We Love š
As an experiment for the next 3 issues, we'll be linking to a paper for people interested in doing a deep dive into the world of digital sustainability. Suggest a paper by sending a recommendation to hello@climateAction.tech, along with why you shared it
From Efficiency Gains to Rebound Effects: The Problem of Jevons' Paradox in AI's Polarized Environmental Debate
Alexandra Sasha Luccioni, Emma Strubell, Kate Crawford -
As the climate crisis deepens, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a contested force: some champion its potential to advance renewable energy, materials discovery, and large-scale emissions monitoring, while others underscore its growing carbon footprint, water consumption, and material resource demands. Much of this debate has concentrated on direct impact -- energy and water usage in data centers, e-waste from frequent hardware upgrades -- without addressing the significant indirect effects. This paper examines how the problem of Jevons' Paradox applies to AI, whereby efficiency gains may paradoxically spur increased consumption.
By broadening the analysis to include both direct and indirect consequences, we aim to inform a more comprehensive, evidence-based dialogue on AI's role in the climate crisis.
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.
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!
Commons - Lead Front-end Engineer - Levels 3-6, $129K ā $205K ā¢ 0.1% ā 0.25% - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
We're looking for a lead front-end engineer who has experience building ReactJS consumer-facing software. We're looking for someone who loves building delightful user experiences and will be responsible for design and delivery of some of Commons' most important features.
Fram Energy - Founding Software Engineer (full-stack) - $140-190k - Permanent - Onsite only
šŗ WE'RE HIRING! Come help us turn solar for rentals into a billion dollar company.
š¼ If you've been waiting for your chance to join Fram Energy, this is it; we are hiring a Full-Stack Founding Software Engineer to join our team in NYC. We work in the office at least three days a week.
š This new hire will help us take our product from 1-10; from currently serving first customers to being able to serve more and larger projects as well as improving the product and user experience. You'll be working closely with other engineers and the broader Fram Energy team.
Vizzuality - Digital Project Manager - Salary ā¬24,000 - ā¬33,000 Euros a year + bonus plan - Permanent - Totally remote
Are you motivated by the desire to help build a sustainable planet for all life on Earth? Come work with me at Vizzuality ! Our work makes supply chains more transparent, stops deforestation, and empowers people to make positive changes now.
We are looking for a Digital Project Manager with proven experience managing and leading cross-functional teams in developing data-driven and online platforms or services, a high level of ownership, organization, and collaboration skills, as well as a passion for the creation of a more sustainable and equitable world for all life on Earth to deliver projects that make a difference in peopleās lives and help make the world a better place.
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