🌍 CAT Newsletter 284 - 2025-07-09
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 284 of the ClimateAction.tech (CAT) Newsletter - your weekly summary of what's happening inside the CAT Slack community (join here and check out our onboarding checklist), and in the wider world of climate and tech.
Remember you can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time - the link is at the bottom.
Stay curious 😌💚🐱
CAT Community News
🙋 Help the community grow and thrive
2min: React to our recent LinkedIn posts (Action Guides | CAT member spotlight on Digital Independence | Clifton Reddy's Climate Career) or even better - repost them!
5min: Donate a one-off amount or set up a recurring donation for CAT on Open Collective
10min: Say hi to a new member in #5-introductions and help them find their way in the community
30min: Introduce your workplace or community to CAT by presenting the CAT lightning deck or including CAT in your own presentation
CAT organiser @HeatherB also announced over in #greener-ai that we're planning a Responsible AI programme of events starting in October! React to her post if you'd like to be involved
📅 Upcoming CAT events
September 11th is the day for online CAT gatherings
- 📗 CAT book club where we'll bring our summer reads. RSVP on Luma: https://luma.com/t6lwdj9y
- 🧠 Workshop: Identifying wicked problems in tech. RSVP on Luma: https://luma.com/iknk1kdl
And for some in-person chances to meet CATs, Green IO London is happening in Sep 23-24 (more info and chance to sign up for volunteering in our #local-london channel)
And more events have been shared in #local-san-francisco-bay-area, #local-switzerland, and #local-austria
🍩 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, September 5th. More info.
Media, events, and news
😺 CAT recommendations
🌱 A cutting from Branch
Branch issue 9: Building Awareness and Agency into the Grid-Aware Web
Our digital infrastructure is built on the expectation of seamless continuity, uptime, availability, and instant loading. But when 'always-on' increasingly means 'always emitting,' this expectation becomes unsustainable.
Users simply don't know how their digital actions affect the environment because the systems they interact with have never been designed to reveal it. To confront this gap, Raj Banerjee and Shraddha Pawar propose a new user interface pattern: Pause, for grid-aware websites.
▶️ CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
BBC: Could 'degrowth' save the world?
A group of academics and activists are questioning the possibility of endless economic growth on a finite planet and are advocating a bold solution: degrowth.
Originating in France, the degrowth movement has spread to places like Japan, the UK and Barcelona, taking root in academia, grassroots organisations and among university students. The movement argues for a 'democratisation of the economy' and for collectively managing key resources, like housing. Critics argue that opposing economic growth is impractical and warn of negative consequences, especially for the most vulnerable. The BBC takes a look at the theory - and ask what the practice might look like.
🎤 Podcasts
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
House of Life: #10 - Is the Jevons Paradox a genuine limit to sustainability?
What if the very efficiency improvements we champion in sustainability actually increase resource consumption? The Jevons Paradox suggests this troubling possibility. However, we dive deep into the historical evidence and find yet another paradox, that this increase in resource consumption seems to go hand in hand with genuine social progress.
Outrage + Optimism: How indigenous communities are facing the climate crisis
What does it mean to live on the front lines of climate change - where rising seas, collapsing ecosystems and the legacies of colonialism collide?
This week, Christiana Figueres and Paul Dickinson are joined by guest host Andrew Higham (Founder of the Future of Climate Cooperation, and former UNFCCC Senior Advisor), to hear from three speakers from across the Solomon Islands, Alaska and Greenland. Their stories serve as a stark warning of the ways climate change is reshaping lives, identities and politics. What can we learn from those who have always been on climate's front lines? And how can we work together to protect the planet on which we all depend?
Green IO: AI & Energy Efficiency - why was DeepSeek a defining moment? with Anne Currie
Anne Currie is the co-author of the acclaimed O'Reilly book "Building Green Software", a pillar of the GSF, a veteran in the Cloud Industry and also a SF novelist with her series of panopticon books.
Preparing her forthcoming keynote at Green IO London, she went all the way down into the rabbit hole of AI and energy efficiency. She investigated from OpenAi to DeepSeek and open source models, what a software developer using these models can and cannot do to reduce energy consumption, and so on.
Catalyst: Geoengineering, nuclear, power prices, and more
You sent in great questions, and today we're answering them. In this episode, Shayle hands it over to Lara Pierpoint, the managing director of Trellis Climate at the Prime Coalition and host of The Green Blueprint. Together they cover topics like:
- Whether solar radiation management will remain the "black sheep" of climate technologies
- What technologies will excel in a world of rising power prices
- Whether the nuclear renaissance is finally here
The Climate Question: Are wetlands our secret weapon in fighting climate change?
The world's wetlands store carbon and can help us tackle some of the impacts of climate change. Are we overlooking their importance? And what can we do to protect them more?
Graihagh Jackson travels to wetlands near her home in East Anglia while Qasa Alom reports from the Bay of Bengal. And The Climate Question catches up with an old friend of the show, Dr Musonda Mumba, Secretary-General of the Convention on Wetlands.
📅 Submitted events
Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.
Monday Sep 08, 2025 - VC-Founder Climate Matchup
Announcing the 2025 Climate Tech VC-Founder Matchup, with meetings taking place online between Sept 8th (Monday) to Sept 12th (Friday). Read more - https://sosv.com/announcing-sosvs-vc-founder-climate-tech-matchup-sept-8-12/
Monday Sep 08, 2025 - Train as a 'LEGO Serious Play for Sustainability' Facilitator with Climate Play (LONDON)
8th & 9th October - London Learn an innovative play-based facilitation approach that helps ditch doom and spark action on sustainability. For in-house and external roles focused on strategy and employee engagement. 10% discount for Climate Action Tech members. Use code ‘CAT’.
Tuesday Sep 09, 2025 - Doubling Your Startup's Runway: Survival Strategies for a Tough Funding Climate
💰 Facing startup funding challenges in 2025's tough climate? Sept 9, 4pm CEST Join Cornelius Schmahl & Matt Ward for battle-tested runway extension strategies. .
Learn cash conservation, alt funding & emergency fundraising tactics.
FREE!
Tuesday Sep 09, 2025 - Portfolio Tips and Tricks
In this session, we will be doing a live portfolio redesign for a member of our community. The purpose of this session is to show you (not tell you) how to craft a beautiful portfolio that lands with employers and to connect you with others who face similar challenges to you.
Tuesday Sep 09, 2025 - Doubling Your Startup's Runway: Survival Strategies for a Tough Funding Climate
Doubling Your Startup's Runway Join Cornelius Schmahl & Matt Ward on Sept 9 (4pm CEST) for survival strategies to extend runway in 2025’s tough funding climate. https://circle.4ward.earth/c/events/doubling-startup-runway
Thursday Sep 11, 2025 - Breaking the Doom Loop: Using LEGO Serious Play to unlock action on sustainability'
Free online workshop for those wanting less doom and disengagement and more optimism and action. Using the method of LEGO Serious Play we will explore common challenges of how to get the issues on the table and have a great conversation when you’re there. Bring LEGO!
Wednesday Sep 17, 2025 - Agilists4Planet Conference - Grounded in Hope
Are you curious about how you could contribute to a brighter future for humanity? Come join us to get inspired by real-world stories, learn about impactful ways to use your skills, and solve problems together.
Thursday Sep 18, 2025 - Agilists4Planet Conference - Grounded in Hope
Are you curious about how you could contribute to a brighter future for humanity? Come join us to get inspired by real-world stories, learn about impactful ways to use your skills, and solve problems together.
Thursday Sep 18, 2025 - Earthed Summit 2025: Generation Restoration
On 18 September, Earthed takes over the iconic EartH in Hackney, London, for a full day-to-night festival: the Earthed Summit 2025: Generation Restoration, a vibrant programme of talks, workshops, immersive sound experiences, live music and DJ sets.
Wednesday Sep 24, 2025 - Green IO London 2025
Green IO and apidays London have partnered to gather 350+ responsible technologists to answer a simple question requiring complex answers:
"Good for the Planet, Good for Business?"
Hosted by Apidays, this takes place on September 23 to 24, 2025 in etc.venues, 155 Bishopsgate.
Wednesday Sep 24, 2025 - 4WARD's Climate Connect
Meet seasoned climate and sustainability professionals from around the world—leaders, founders, investors, and changemakers—who are serious about driving the transition to a sustainable future.
Thursday Sep 25, 2025 - Ride the Change
Ride the Change is a community-led bike ride for people passionate about climate and nature. The shared 4 day adventure makes space for deep connection and conversations that matter, while also exploring rewilding sites of Kent & Sussex.
Tuesday Sep 30, 2025 - Call for Speakers closing on 30.09 - ecoCompute conference
ecoCompute is a green tech conference purely dedicated to digital sustainability. On 30.09.2025 the Call for Speakers will close - Make your voice heard and submit your contribution until the end of the month!
ecoCompute will happen in Berlin on 13&14 November
📰 News Highlights
HackerNoon: Carbon Aware Computing- Next Green Breakthrough or New Greenwashing?
Carbon-aware computing refers to running your compute jobs when and where the electricity grid is being powered by renewable energy. Responsible carbon-aware computing has the potential to contribute to greening tech emissions, but it is important to factor in in the risks; evidence mitigation steps and actual impact; and provide warning labels in its marketing and promotion.
The New Yorker: 4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment
In the past two years, without much notice, solar power has begun to truly transform the world's energy system. Even though we've got used to seeing solar panels and wind turbines across the landscape in the intervening fifty years, we continue to think of what they produce as "alternative energy," a supplement to the fossil-fuelled power that has run Western economies for more than two centuries. In the past two years, however, with surprisingly little notice, renewable energy has suddenly become the obvious, mainstream, cost-efficient choice around the world.
TVB Europe: Four simple ways operators can help users reduce streaming energy consumption
Ben Schwarz, president of Greening of Streaming, advocates for practical, user-centred strategies to reduce energy consumption across the streaming ecosystem. These four recommendations emerged from the team's research and testing, and are practical, user-facing steps that operators and service providers could promote or support today.
AgTech Navigator: Radical methane tech tackles dairy's farm emissions
Proven to destroy up to 90% of dilute methane, a Denmark-based startup could supercharge dairy companies' climate goals and slash scope 3 emissions. Until now, dairy hasn't found a singular answer to its farm emissions problem: with producers leveraging a wide 'toolbox' to tackle methane from sources such as enteric fermentation, manure and fertilizer
Mongabay: Former poachers guard Cabo Verde's endangered sea turtles
Conservation organizations are employing Cabo Verdeans, who formerly hunted endangered and threatened sea turtles, as rangers who now monitor and patrol beaches. The drop in poaching is the outcome of "collective efforts by ranger-led patrols, fused with technology, that engages local people by creating jobs."
Piclo: Everyone's Talking About Data Center Flex. Nobody's Talking About Clubbing
Data centers are emerging as flexible loads, but they could also procure local flexibility from clubs of Virtual Power Plants. This "clubbing" model strengthens communities, lowers costs, relieves grid constraints, and enhances resilience. Instead of only focusing behind the meter, data centers could procure flexibility and resource adequacy from third parties through local Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) or "clubs" of distributed energy resources (DERs).
Phys.Org: Europe expands carbon storage with nature-inspired tech
Drawing on nature, researchers have developed a method to pump CO2 captured from industrial processes into volcanic rocks for safe and permanent underground storage.
For the first time, Europe will bury its carbon not beneath the sea, but under its own soil, heralding a new chapter in the continent's fight against climate change.
💚 Papers We Love 💚
More than Carbon: Cradle-to-Grave environmental impacts of GenAI training on the Nvidia A100 GPU
The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) has intensified concerns about its environmental sustainability. Yet, current assessments predominantly focus on operational carbon emissions using secondary data or estimated values, overlooking environmental impacts in other life cycle stages. This study presents the first comprehensive multi-criteria life cycle assessment (LCA) of AI training, examining 16 environmental impact categories based on detailed primary data collection of the Nvidia A100 SXM 40GB GPU, one of the most widely deployed GPUs for AI training.
💼 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.
Ambitious Impact - Non-profit Entrepreneur — Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program - £1,900 monthly stipend - Permanent -
Want to work on high-impact climate interventions? Launch your own charity through our fully funded Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program. In just two months, you’ll get training, funding, and mentorship to start an organisation tackling global inequalities at scale.
Too many charity jobs focus on fundraising over real impact. We help founders create field-leading nonprofits that solve major problems efficiently. Since launch, we’ve started 50+ organisations improving the lives of 1B+ animals and reaching 75M+ people.
This is a fully funded training program with no fees. Participants receive a stipend of approximately £1,900 per month, with flexibility for those who may need more (or less) support based on their personal circumstances.
Post-Program Salary: After the program, founder salaries depend on the seed funding secured, generally ranging from £100,000 to £150,000. Most founders set their own salaries between £30,000 and £45,000, depending on individual financial needs.
Our research team invests 5,000+ hours annually identifying top solutions. Charities from our program have gained recognition from funders like the Gates Foundation, USAID, Open Philanthropy, and GiveWell. For example, Giving Green, founded in 2020 with $60K, has since raised $31.8M for high-impact climate nonprofits.
Program Dates:
- Spring: Feb 9 – Apr 5, 2026
- Summer: Aug – Sep, 2026
Apply by Sep 21, 2025 at charityentrepreneurship.com!
Treeconomy - Mid-level Engineer (Full Stack) - Equivalent to £50-60k annual - Contract - Flexible - remote ok
🌳 My team at Treeconomy are building a digital twin of nature-based carbon projects. Our products create the integrity that big corporates need to finance nature restoration at scale.
🇬🇧 Due to our funding requirements, we must hire someone based in the UK with an existing right to work. You’ll be close enough to London to pop into the office on a short train or flight. Contract starts in October, lasting 6 months.
If this sounds like you, check out the role description and apply before 12 September.
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