🌍 CAT Newsletter 286 - 2025-09-21
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 286 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
✏️ CAT event summary: Identifying wicked problems in tech
CATs came together to participate in the workshop, “Identifying Wicked Problems in Tech.” as part of our #cat-systems-series. During the workshop everyone gained a deep understanding of what constitutes wicked problems within technology, how to define them, and explored various methods from diverse perspectives. You can read about what happened during the workshop here.
And speaking of the System Series - you can now vote for the next workshop topic
📆 Upcoming CAT events
Tue, Sep 23rd - London CAT x Green IO Wine Down [in-person]
Come and help with our Responsible AI progamme starting this October!
🍩 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, Oct 3rd. More info.
Media, events, and news
😺 CAT recommendations
🌱 A cutting from Branch
Branch issue 9: A Digital Almanac - Attuning Our Web Habits to the Natural World
Hidden behind the glass of our screens, every click, tap, and swipe is powered by a very physical infrastructure – vast data centers, content delivery networks, and the cloud (a cleverly marketed, light nature-sounding word to conceal its weight). To make things worse, the energy that fuels our digital experiences often comes from carbon-intensive sources, but rarely do we associate our web browsing habits with 'dirty' energy in the same way we might a long-haul flight or a gas-guzzling car.
This disconnect raises a vital question: How do we make the invisible visible? How do we reconnect the online world with the natural systems it ultimately depends on?
▶️ CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
Planet A: Your city (probably) can't handle heat and floods – but it could
From Ahmedabad to Boston, cities across the world are making big changes to cope with floods and heat. This video from DW Planet A covers:
Who is hit hardest
Short-term reactions
Nature-based solutions
Building better cities
Adapting to climate risks
🎤 Podcasts
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
Renewable Energy SmartPod: Smart Buildings Are Getting Smarter
With rising energy prices in the news, there's never been a better time for building owners and operators to optimize their operations to save energy costs. With that in mind, James Dice, founder and CEO of Nexus Labs, stops by the show to discuss smart building technology. Ahead of NexusCon 2025, James shares his insights about technologies and trends that are advancing the industry and also cites examples of companies that leading the way.
Green IO: #64 Why we hate recycling with Elaine Brown and Ross Cockburn
Elaine and Ross hate recycling. Both know first hand about our computers' and smartphones' life. About the wasted opportunities to better use the precious resources into it. Elaine Brown is the CEO of the Edinburgh Remakery who refurbished 295 laptops last year. She's also a keen expert on the right to repair issues. Ross Cockburn is the Trustee of Reusing IT who has been dealing with repaired devices from Africa to Ukraine over the last 25 years
Energ'Ethic: Rhizomes, Relationships, and the Energy Transition
What if the energy transition was less about infrastructure—and more about invisible connections?
In this episode, Junior Mbangala introduces a quietly radical idea: the rhizome. Borrowed from philosophy, this root-like, messy, decentralised structure becomes a powerful lens to rethink energy systems. Not as neat grids or market mechanisms—but as webs of trust, knowledge, and social ties.
Junior uses social network analysis to map how energy communities actually function:
Who participates?
Who holds influence?
And who gets left out, even when it all looks inclusive on paper?
Catalyst: Is now the time for DERs to scale?
A decade ago, DERs (Decentralised Energy Resources) were hot. But, they never took off, at least not at the scale that many hoped for. They had high price tags and short track records compared to the existing substations, transmission lines, and generation options that utilities were familiar with. In short, the market didn't need them yet.
Fast forward 10 years, and things have changed. Load growth is increasing while major grid bottlenecks — like in transmission, interconnection, and supply chains — may be opening up a new opportunity.
So is the time finally right for DERs?
Environment Variables: The Green Software Movement Platform
Producer Chris Skipper speaks with Gosia Fricze, Community Manager at the Green Software Foundation, about the launch of the new Green Software Movement Platform, a hub designed to connect practitioners, share resources, and turn conversations into real-world action. They discuss how the platform brings together tools, courses, events, and community spaces to help individuals and organizations adopt green software standards, foster collaboration, and build momentum toward a global movement for sustainable software.
The Climate Question: Will the switch to green technology become unstoppable?
When people talk about tipping points in the climate, it's usually bad news – the irreversible melting of ice sheets or the collapse of rainforests. But could there be positive tipping points too, moments where climate solutions break through and spread rapidly?
Tim Lenton, Professor of Climate Change at the University of Exeter and author of Positive Tipping Points: How to Fix the Climate Crisis, says it's already happening – from the dramatic rise of renewable energy to the surge in electric vehicles
📅 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 Sep 23, 2025 - NYC Climate Week: A Climate Careers Mixer
Join us and other climate job seekers for a networking mixer at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, NYC! This will be a laid-back networking event for professionals who want to apply their skills in climate work and build connections within the community.
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
Tuesday Sep 30, 2025 - Showcase your Story: Live Portfolio Redesign
We will coach Ely, a mid-career job seeker who is looking for work in social media and climate communications. Ely wants to redesign their portfolio so ensure it presents their best work and potential clients can easily purchase their services.
📰 News Highlights
Sinocities: How is China's "Eastern Data Western Compute"（东数西算) developing?
In 2018, Apple moved most of its data for China-based users to cloud computing servers in southwestern Guizhou's Gui'an New Area. This decision reflected a reality since China's 2016 Cybersecurity Law, that in order for foreign technology firms to operate in China they would have to store user data within the country. Apple no doubt saw this as a necessary compromise to ensure its continued operations in China and maintain its presence in the country that still accounts for 20% of its sales. But why Guizhou?
The Guardian: Google's huge new Essex datacentre to emit 570,000 tonnes of CO2 a year
A new Google datacentre in Essex is expected to emit more than half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to about 500 short-haul flights a week, planning documents show.
Spread across 52 hectares (128 acres), the Thurrock "hyperscale datacentre" will be part of a wave of mammoth computer and AI power houses if it secures planning consent.
Climate Home News: Second Africa Climate Summit seeks to jump hurdles to green industrialisation
As the second Africa Climate Summit began in Ethiopia on Monday, a progress report launched by Kenya's president highlighted how shortfalls in clean energy and infrastructure, a decline in manufacturing capacity, high debt levels and limited participation in global value chains are holding back green growth on the continent.
ESGDive: How soil accounting software can help improve carbon offsetting's credibility
Last month, Perennial — a company that provides crop and land-use measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification — announced the release of VT0014, a soil carbon quantification software approved by voluntary carbon market standard setter Verra. The tool allows carbon capture to be estimated with less physical soil sampling, the traditional method, and at much lower costs. Bayer, rTek, Anthesis, and Cool Path are among the companies that have already committed to implementing the software, according to the announcement.
Scott Logic Blog: Greener AI - what matters, what helps, and what we still do not know
Artificial intelligence (AI), and particularly large language models (LLMs), have rapidly transitioned from niche research to global infrastructure, bringing with it significant environmental impacts. We conducted a literature review to find and evaluate recent academic and industry research to integrate evidence on emissions across the AI life cycle, from hardware manufacturing to large-scale deployment.
Project Syndicate: The False Promise of "AI for Social Good
In peddling "AI for Social Good" initiatives, technology companies and philanthropies are suggesting that complex political, historical, and social issues can be reduced to technical problems. But given how today's AI systems work, there is no reason we should believe them – and much reason to be suspicious of their claims.
EnviroTech: Key milestone in driving emissions transparency and compliance
ABB is the first company to achieve full certification for its data acquisition and handling system (DAHS) under the new international emissions reporting standard EN 17255, setting a benchmark for global compliance.
💚 Papers We Love 💚
TU Berlin: Optimizing Microgrid Composition for Sustainable Data Centers
As computing energy demand continues to grow and electrical grid infrastructure struggles to keep pace, an increasing number of data centers are being planned with colocated microgrids that integrate on-site renewable generation and energy storage. However, while existing research has examined the tradeoffs between operational and embodied carbon emissions in the context of renewable energy certificates, there is a lack of tools to assess how the sizing and composition of microgrid components affects long-term sustainability and power reliability. This paper presents a novel optimization framework that extends the computing and energy system co-simulator Vessim with detailed renewable energy generation models from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) System Advisor Model (SAM).
💼 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.
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.
Vizzuality - Data Engineer - Depending on experience, a salary ranging from €24,000 to €30,000 Eur a year - Permanent - Totally remote
Do you want to help build a fairer and sustainable future? Are you currently looking for a new career opportunity in data engineering?
We are hiring a Data Engineer with experience in Python and geospatial data processing.
At Vizzuality, we commit to a fair and sustainable planet by creating tools that radically empower people to make positive changes. We’re always looking for passionate people who strive to use their creativity and skills to make a difference in people’s 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).
Support our work
You can support us financially on Open Collective.