š CAT Newsletter 267 - 2025-05-11
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 267 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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Stay safe & healthy š š š±
CAT Community News
šŖ CAT members publishing stories and guides
We've entered May and Earth Day is behind us but there were a lot of great CAT actions in ourĀ Earth Day Show & Tell presentationĀ and these are more examples of CATs sharing ideas about sustainability and tech:
- DĀ has published a book to help new developers code for good from the very start of their career
- EĀ has been publishing regularĀ #climate-careersĀ stories on the blog
- AĀ made and published improvements to the Web Sustainability Guidelines
- RĀ has published a guide to inspire more sustainable website building
- MĀ has been adapting design frameworks (like the EARTH framework and the lean UX canvas) to include sustainability
š§ Knowledge base deep dive: #greener-data-ai
It's easy to think of AI's impacts as abstract or inevitable, but what if we asked a bigger question:
How might we ensure AI doesn't inherit the extractive strategies and value systems that helped drive the climate crisis in the first place? Ones that prioritize growth at any cost, deny responsibility, or externalize harm.
This goes beyond just technical optimization. It's about values, accountability, and rethinking the frameworks we're embedding into our tools.
Volunteers C and V have been curating discussions like this on the Greener Data & AIĀ Outline page (access for Slack members only).
š CAT events
š Thu, May 22rd ā Systems Series [online]
Join us to build a shared vision for sustainable tech in the first part of the co-creation systems series, "Systems Change for Sustainable Tech".
In this part we will be imagining the kind of future we want, reflect on the values that will make this future possible, use the insights from indigenous wisdom, imagine ourselves in this future, and make a commitment to create this future.
š ļø Fri, May 23rd ā ZĆ¼rich Hackathon [in-person]
Also, there's discussions about the next CAT book club book over inĀ #cat-bookclub! Aaaand you can meet other CATs at external events likeĀ Green IOĀ inĀ #local-new-yorkĀ later this month, theĀ Green Tech ForumĀ inĀ #local-belgiumĀ this June, orĀ Green IOĀ inĀ #local-munichĀ later in July. Simply coordinate with other CATs in the corresponding local channels.
š© Community networking
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, May 16th. More info.
Media, events, and news
šŗ CAT recommendations
ā¶ļø CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
Planet A: How a leading Indonesian EV supplier covered up toxic pollution
Leaked documents indicate that Indonesia's Harita Group contaminated Obi Island's water with toxic chromium and apparently misled investors in a $660M IPO ā all to cash in on the soaring demand for battery materials.
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
Environment Variables: Cloud Infrastructure, Efficiency and Sustainability
Host Anne Currie is Joined by Charles Humble, a writer, podcaster, and former CTO with a decade's experience helping technologists build better systemsāboth technically and ethically. Together, they discuss how developers and companies can make smarter, greener choices in the cloud, as well as the trade-offs that should be considered. They discuss the road that led to the present state of generative AI, the effect it has had on the planet, as well as their hopes for a more sustainable future.
Catalyst: The U.S. nuclear groundswell
The nuclear renaissance of the 2000s turned out to be something of a mirage. Buoyed by rising fossil gas prices, growing climate awareness, and steady load growth, nuclear seemed poised for a breakout moment. But that momentum stalled. Ultimately, only two new reactors reached completion. So is this latest wave of nuclear hype any different?
Techologie: #96 Les algorithmes contre la sociƩtƩ
Hubert Guillaud, journaliste et blogueur, questionne la difficultĆ© d'expliquer ou de reproduire certains algorithmes et propose que les dĆ©veloppeurs soient formĆ©s aux sciences sociales. Enfin, il explore la convergence entre capitalisme et politiques d'extrĆŖme droite et cherche des pistes pour des algorithmes plus justes.
Hubert Guillaud, a journalist and blogger, questions the difficulty of explaining or reproducing certain algorithms and suggests that developers be trained in social sciences. Finally, he explores the convergence between capitalism and far-right politics and seeks ways to create fairer algorithms.
Zero, The Climate Race: How Australia's natural resources will shape global emissions
Australia is in a unique place when it comes to the energy transition. It is the world's largest exporter of coal and a leading exporter of gas, yet has set a target to reduce emissions by 43% and have 82% renewable electricity by 2030. It is also caught Ā juggling relations between the US, its military ally, and China, its biggest trading partner ā as the two superpowers fight over trade.
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.
Thursday May 15, 2025 - Green IO New York 2025
Green IO New York covers responsible AI, green software, sustainable design, green cloud, etc., and will provide a variety of perspectives from practitioners and experts.
Saturday Jun 21, 2025 - London Climate Action Week
London Climate Action Week 2025:- 350+ Events, 45,000 attendees Themes; Building climate ambition on the road to COP30, Financing inclusive and resilient climate transition, Delivering a net zero and resilient London and UK, Mobilising Whole of Society Climate Action
Saturday Jun 21, 2025 - London Climate Action Week
London Climate Action Week mobilises Londonās unparalleled ecosystem of climate and non-climate organisations to accelerate global climate action and supports action in London to ensure it acts as a global climate leader.āÆāÆ9 days, 300+ Events, 45,000 attendees.
Thursday Jul 03, 2025 - Green IO Munich 2025
Apidays Munich and the Green IO podcast have partnered to bring you the first Green IO conference for the DACH region, packed with the latest insights from thought leaders in Tech Sustainability and hands-on feedback from practitioners scaling Green IT.
Sunday Jul 06, 2025 - Pacific Northwest Climate Week
Pacific Northwest Climate Week is a community-powered event series that unites individuals & organizations. Accelerates the fight against climate change. The week-long gathering brings together climate innovators, thought leaders, & enthusiasts from Seattle, Vancouver, & Portland
š° News Highlights
New Atlas: World's first "Synthetic Biological Intelligence" runs on living human cells
The world's first "biological computer" that fuses human brain cells with silicon hardware to form fluid neural networks has been commercially launched, ushering in a new age of AI technology. The CL1, from Cortical Labs, offers a whole new kind of computing intelligence āĀ one that's more dynamic, sustainable and energy efficient than any AI that currently exists.
NPR: Why the true water footprint of AI is so elusive
Data centers are enormous buildings filled with hundreds of thousands of computers that store cloud data and power artificial intelligence. To keep up with computing demands, data centers use electricity and sometimes chilled water to keep those computers cool. The result? A surge in energy and water use that has caught the attention of scientists and lawmakers.
The Conversation: Hidden connections of more than 100 migratory marine species revealed in interactiveĀ map
From the enormous blue whale to the delicate monarch butterfly, animals of all shapes and sizes migrate across the globe. These migrations are crucial to both the health of species making these epic journeys, and the habitats where they live. An interactive map has been developed, alongside an international team of scientists, to visualise these epic, globe-spanning journeys and the habitats they connect.
New Scientist: Europe increasingly vulnerable to hailstones the size of golfballs
Hailstones the size of golfballs are increasingly raining down on Europe as the climate warms, causing expensive damage to cars and buildings. Very large hail, classified as hailstones that measure 5 centimetres or more in diameter, is one of the most costly forms of extreme weather, capable of smashing windows, denting cars and blowing holes through the roof of a building.
Bloomberg: Pope Leo XIV Might Be the Climate Champion We Need
In picking a new leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, the Vatican had a chance to honor the late Pope Francis' legacy as the greenest pope in modern history. In choosing the American (and Peruvian) Cardinal Robert Prevost ā henceforth known as Pope Leo XIV ā his fellow cardinals appear to have seized that opportunity.
Reinsurance News: Aon warns business leaders of compounding risks from AI, climate change, and trade disruption in 2025
Aon, a global professional services firm, has released its Client Trends 2025 report, emphasising the growing interdependence of four powerful forcesāTrade, Technology, Weather, and Workforceāthat are shaping the operating environment for organisations worldwide.
Financial Times: US pushes financial regulators to backtrack on climate risk project
US regulators are calling on the world's financial rulemakers to downgrade a flagship project to tackle the risks of climate change in the latest sign of America's retreat from environmental causes since Donald Trump became president.
š Papers We Love š
Nature.com: Using life cycle assessment to drive innovation for sustainable cool clouds
Since 2010, global internet traffic has increased more than 15-fold, with the sharpest jump occurring in the past few years. The increasing demand for cloud apps, machine learning, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI) and other applications is driving the rapid acceleration and transfer of computing tasks to data centres, to the point that this phenomenon has been called the fourth industrial revolution. And this revolution has just begun.
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.
Optivide - Part-time Chief Technology Officer - 36000-66000 - Volunteer - Flexible - remote ok
We are a B2B2C/B2C social enterprise that supports people in solving climate problems with financial confidence.
In our mobile app, our users can:
Set their 5-10-year sustainability and financial goals Review their sustainability impacts and financials Customize sustainability practices while planning finance
Based on their interaction in climate, our AI advisor will be able to better customize their climate reduction plan and disclose our usersā financial goals success rate after reflecting on the potential climate financial loss.
The solution will help them better realize the negative impacts of climate change on their personal goals(retirements, real estate, college tuition) and learn how they could increase their goal success rate by taking sustainability action in their daily lives.
Vizzuality - Back End Engineer - ā¬24,000 to ā¬35,000 Eur per year - Permanent - Totally remote
We are looking for a Back-end Engineer with experience and proficiency in NodeJS/TypeScript - Remote based in Spain, Portugal, or UK.
At Vizzuality, our purpose is to reach a fair and sustainable planet by creating tools that radically empower people to make positive changes now. Weāre always looking for passionate people who strive to use their creativity and skills to make a difference in peopleās lives and help make the world a better place. Finally, we know how life goes and are open to exploring full-time and part-time contract options (with a minimum of 80% time dedication).
WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU? - Collaborate with a diverse and passionate team of professionals. - Develop tools that are informing how to tackle climate change worldwide. - Enjoy remote work, flexible schedules, and generous paid time off. - Experience a work culture that values autonomy, community and growth. - Depending on experience, a salary ranging from ā¬24,000 to ā¬35,000.
Global Canopy - Full Stack Developer - Ā£60K - Contract - Flexible - remote ok
Global Canopy is a non-profit using data to target the market forces destroying nature, focusing on reducing deforestation and hence fighting climate change. We enable major companies, investors and governments to take positive action, and we help campaigning organisations and investigative journalists shine a light on those not doing enough. And we help policymakers to design laws that make it mandatory for the private sector to change. We're looking for a skilled full stack developer (React/Next.js, Python, AWS) to lead on the creation of the a new interactive product called the EU Nature Dependency Dashboard. This will provide essential data on each of the 27 EU countries, connecting macroeconomic data to nature materiality data, supply chain and possibly state-of-nature data near upstream locations. The data will be used by governments, central banks and NGOs in assessing financial risk and economic impacts, and will feed into financial institutions' internal risk assessments.
Verna - Product Manager - Circa Ā£50-80k (doe) + share options - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Verna builds software to help people manage land in the best way for the environment ā enhancing biodiversity and drawing down carbon, whilst making sustainable returns. We are looking for a Product Manager to develop and lead our product management approach. This role involves introducing best-in-class processes, systems and practices for product management, enabling us to deliver products and features that support and delight users in a consistent and timely fashion.
Support our work
You can support us financially onĀ Open Collective.