š CAT Newsletter 272 - 2025-06-15
CAT 272 - 2025-06-15
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 272 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
āļø From the blog
Missed out on the System series events so far? We've got you covered! Catch up with "Building a shared vision" and "Navigating complexity".
And if you're curious about moreĀ #climate-careersĀ stories - you can read about Chris' reflectionsĀ on community, laws, and addressing the problems the world is facing orĀ dive into GaĆ«l's storyĀ of change, impact, and learning together.
š° Apply for a mini grant
Got a project in mind for 2025? Applications are open for our next round of mini grants!Ā Apply through this formĀ and your project will be evaluated this month.Ā More info
The mini-grant program is funded by CAT donations. If you want to see more of these,Ā donating via OpenCollective is the fastest easiest way to support this work.
š CAT Book club
Next we'll readĀ Insolvent: How to Reorient Computing for Just SustainabilityĀ by Christoph Becker. TheĀ e-book version is available for free directly from MIT. We're getting together on Monday July 7 to discuss the book. More info inĀ #cat-bookclub
š CAT Events
Tue, Jun 24th -Ā Code Green London June meetupĀ [in-person]
Want to see some local meet-ups in your city / region? Why not join the volunteering team as Local Meetup Organizer?
š Other local events
You can also coordiante with CATs in our local channels to join meet at other local events likeā¦
Jun 17-18 -Ā Green Tech ForumĀ inĀ #local-belgium
Jun 17 -Ā Green Tech Working Group meetingĀ inĀ #local-leeds
Jun 21-29 -Ā Climate Action WeekĀ inĀ #local-london
Jun 26 -Ā IT Sustainability Meetup ZurichĀ inĀ #local-switzerland
Jul 2-3 -Ā Green IOĀ inĀ #local-munich
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, June 27th. More info.
Media, events, and news
šŗ CAT recommendations
ā¶ļø CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
PBS Terra: The REAL STORY of Climate Skeptics' New Favorite Graph
Is global warming just part of Earth's natural cycle? In this episode of Weathered, we break down why that's not the full story. From ice ages and Milankovitch cycles to the role of CO2 and fossil fuels, today's climate change is unlike anything in Earth's deep past. Learn why the speed of warming matters and how we can bring our temperature down.
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
Green IO: Debriefing Qcon Sustainability track with Erica Pisani
How is sustainability covered in main tech conferences?Ā
Sure cybersecurity, DevOps, or anything related to SRE, is covered at length. Not to mention AIā¦ But what room is left for the environmental impact of our job ? And what are the main trends which are filtered out from specialized conferences in Green IT such as Green IO, GreenTech Forum or eco-compute to generic Tech conferences?Ā
To talk about it Gaƫl Duez sat down in this latest Green IO episode with Erica Pisani who was the MC of the Performance and Sustainability track at QCon London this year.
Catalyst: The state of play of data center development
The future of the grid increasingly hinges on where and how data centers get built. To forecast the kind of power infrastructure we need to meet AI's growing appetite, we first need to understand a laundry list of variables: data center size, workload type, latency, reliability ā even the variety of a data center's coolant system.Ā
So what's the state of play in data center development today ā and how are the trends shaping grid needs?
Environment Variables: Open Source Carbon Footprints
Chris Adams is joined by Thibaud Colas; product lead at Torchbox, president of the Django Software Foundation, and lead on Wagtail CMS. They explore the role of open source projects in tackling digital carbon emissions and discuss Wagtail's pioneering carbon footprint reporting, sustainable default settings, and grid-aware website features, all enabled through initiatives like Google Summer of Code. Thibaud shares how transparency, contributor motivation, and clear governance can drive impactful sustainability efforts in web development, and why measuring and reducing emissions in the Python ecosystem matters now more than ever.
Code Green: Funding & Framing Asia's Climate Futures
In this episode, the last in a series exploring the tensions surrounding AI, Hanyuan 'Karen' Wang and Luis Felipe R. Murrillo discuss the complex arena of climate finance - highlighting these key tensions and potential pathways forward. Hanyuan discusses the need for tools for businesses to navigate the complex climate policy landscape, and the role of private-sector involvement. Luis highlights the difficulties of collecting quality climate data, the importance of data stewardship in bridging the gaps between experts and community needs, and the potential of 'commoning' as a way to envision alternate, sustainable frameworks and funding models.Ā
Zero - The Climate Race: The device throttling the world's electrified future (Bottlenecks Series)
To slash emissions fast, the formula is simple: electrify everything and clean up the grid. But in practice, progress is slowed by all sorts of bottlenecks ā from arcane permitting processes to sky-high electricity costs.
This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi sits down with producer Oscar Boyd to spotlight a surprising culprit slowing the transition: a global shortage of transformers, and why it has industry insiders so worried. This episode kicks off Bottlenecks, a new series exploring the lesser known obstacles standing in the way of our electrified future.Ā
The Climate Question: Can nature help us to store carbon?
Around the world, scientists and entrepreneurs are pouring billions into researching new ways of storing carbon dioxide. We look at a scheme in India to put CO2 in rocks and research in the UK using kelp. Will either of them be effective?
Host Graihagh Jackson dives into the waters off Britain's southern coast to find out more about the magical powers of kelp, while Chhavi Sachdev visits a tea plantation in Darjeeling which is hoping to diversify into carbon sequestration.
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.
Tuesday Jun 17, 2025 - Green Tech Forum Brussels
The event highlights innovative solutions in frugal AI, energy-efficient data centers, eco-friendly software development, green cloud computing, IT refurbishing, WEEE recycling, and more.
Wednesday Jun 18, 2025 - Digital Sustainability: An Open Roundtable Discussion
We want to hear what is important to you, our awesome community! Whether you're already deep in the world of green software or you're completely new to the concept, we welcome you to bring along your thoughts, ideas and challenges in this space for an evening of discussion.
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.
Saturday Jun 28, 2025 - Digital Collage
Join a 3h workshop using collective intelligence to learn about the environmental impacts of Digital Technologies and get inspired to take action.
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
Tuesday Jul 15, 2025 - Green Data Center for Green Software ā Green Software for Green Data Center
Green Software Development and Data Centres are dependent on each other if we want to build and operate green software. This event will bring together the players in digitalisation - Developers, Scaleway, Heat & Cloud and windCORES. Let's start a dialog
Sunday Aug 29, 2027 - Biodiversity Basics for Product Professionals
The products we build rely on and affect nature. This workshop will address: 1. What is biodiversity and why is it relevant for product professionals 2. What can you do & practical examples 3. Your takeaway: first biodiversity analysis along your product's value chain
š° News Highlights
Climate & Capitalism: Carbon capture company emits more than it captures
Is carbon capture a climate solutionāor a costly illusion? A new investigation reveals that Climeworks, a leading carbon removal company, has emitted more COā than it has captured, raising serious questions about its promises and practices. This exposĆ© dives into the numbers, the marketing, and the growing skepticism around a technology many hoped would help save the planet.
BBC: Britain's energy bills problem - and why firms are paid huge sums to stop producing power
The UK's electricity grid was built to deliver power generated by coal and gas plants near the country's major cities and towns, and doesn't always have sufficient capacity in the wires that carry electricity around the country to get the new renewable electricity generated way out in the wild seas and rural areas. And this has major consequences.
SDG Knowledge Hub: Governments, Stakeholders Endorse Responsible AI for SDGs
The UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany, and more than 40 representatives of governments, private sector organizations, civil society, and research institutions endorsed a declaration seeking to shape human-centric, human rights-based, inclusive, open, sustainable, and responsible artificial intelligence (AI) for the SDGs.
Gas Outlook: xAI data centre emits plumes of pollution, new video shows
A massive data centre at xAI's controversial site in Memphis, Tennessee is emitting huge plumes of pollution, according to footage recorded by an environmental watchdog group. A new video, recorded by Oil Field Witness, an environmental group, shows vast plumes of pollution coming from those gas turbines.
Vogue Business: Between courage and cowardice - Global Fashion Summit grapples with a mixed mood
In the face of Trump's crackdown on ESG, stripped-back EU regulations and a renewed fight against greenwashing, several big brands swapped onstage presence for closed-door roundtables this year, changing the atmosphere.
Luxembourg Times: EU will work on setting water use caps for thirsty data centres
The European Commission, the bloc's executive branch, will propose the measure by the end of 2026 as part of a scheme to make data centres, whose demand for water and energy is set to surge, more sustainable, according to a draft document seen by Bloomberg News.
Anthropocene Magazine: Older companies are surprisingly more sustainable than younger ones
Older companies are more environmentally sustainable than younger ones, according to a new analysis. The findings upend popular assumptions of old organizations as hidebound and incapable of change, and younger ones as having a "greenness" native to their era of environmental concern.
TriplePundit: AI Could Soon Offset Its Own Environmental Impact By Improving Energy Efficiency, Report Finds
There's growing tension between the innovation artificial intelligence (AI) promises and the potential damage it can cause.Ā Presenting a more hopeful angle on what may seem like impending environmental doom is a new study by PwC in collaboration with Microsoft and Oxford University. The central question: Can AI save as much energy as it consumes?
š Papers We Love š
Orange Research: Frugal AI - Introduction, Concepts, Development and Open Questions
This report aims to provide an overview and synopsis of frugal AI, with a particular focus on its role in promoting cost-eļ¬ective and sustainable innovation in the context of limited resources. It discusses the environmental impact of AI technologies and the importance of optimising AI systems for eļ¬ciency and accessibility. It explains the interface between AI, sustainability and innovation. It also makes interested readers aware of various research topics related to frugal AI, raises open questions for further exploration, and provides pointers and references.
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.
Working Families Party - Data Systems Engineer - $100,000-$137,000 - Permanent - Totally remote
I'm hiring for a Data Systems Engineer at Working Families Party to help build out the data infrastructure of the electoral left! To win change on climate we need an electoral strategy to win governing power, and powerful electoral organizing requires a powerful data team! This is a senior level role working on data engineering, cloud infrastructure, web applications, and workflow automations. This role is remote and the salary band goes up to $137,500.
No need to meet ALL the qualifications sought on this job post. Feel free to reach out with any questions!
If you know someone who might be good - please make sure they see this! Thank you!
Rune Energy - Software Engineer ā Energy Infrastructure & Control Systems - Competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package (exact amount TBD) - Permanent - Onsite only
Weāre looking for a Software Engineer to build core infrastructure powering Runeās deployments ā including our control center, post-deployment reliability systems, and power plant controller (PPC) integrations for both wind and solar assets.
Youāll work across our Deploy and Pipeline teams to bridge operational control with renewable energy coordination, helping scale Runeās footprint and reliability across new geographies and energy partners.
Support our work
You can support us financially onĀ Open Collective.