🌍 CAT Newsletter 290 - 2025-10-19
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 290 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.
We're excited to announce the kickoff of our Responsible AI event series on October 29th! Sign up for the first workshop, Designing Responsibly in the Age of AI, on lu.ma. More details below.
There is also an opportunity to participate in setting software carbon intensity specifications with the Green Software Foundation. Links are in the Get Involved section.
Remember you can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time - the link is at the bottom.
Stay curious 😌💚🐱
CAT Community News
🤖 Get involved with Responsible AI month at CAT
1 EASY - Chat on Slack:
Answer: What ethical considerations do you think about most when using AI?
Ask questions on this topic or bring up ideas in #3-questions-and-ideas
2 MEDIUM - Join the online Workshop: Designing Responsibly in the Age of AI on Oct 29th
3 HARD - Help organise a local roundtable in November (more info)
❤️ Help a CAT
Responding to our latest 'Which climate goal(s) are you making progress on' prompt, J shared that he's bringing carbon footprint related OKRs into his workplace and he's looking for someone to collaborate - sharing challenges and exploring practical options to incrementally effect some change. Chat with J
H is looking for help with finding the right tool for estimating the environmental impact from computing use at work, particularly as they increase their use of AI. Help H out
C is looking for others who are exploring options for instrumenting the use of hosted AI services, and figuring out where in the supply chain you can sub in different providers. Reply to C
📅 Upcoming CAT events
Wed, Oct 29th - Workshop: Designing Responsibly in the Age of AI [online]
November - We're planning some local roundtables on the topic of Responsible - get involved
🍩 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 31st. More info.
Media, events, and news
😺 CAT recommendations
🌱 A cutting from Branch
Branch issue 9: Compost Engineers and Sus Saberes Lentos - A Manifest for Regenerative Technologies
This article summarizes a broader manifesto/research piece developed by the authors in the context of the Feminist AI Research Network, to propose an epistemological, historical, political, and creative exercise to envision technological development guided by social-environmental justice and feminist principles, resulting in technologies of life and del buen vivir.
▶️ CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
PBS Terra: She's Healing Wildfire Pollution. With Mushrooms.
Wildfires don't just burn homes—they leave behind a toxic legacy. When cars, buildings, and everyday materials go up in flames, they release heavy metals, asbestos, dioxins, and other contaminants that seep into soil and water, threatening communities long after the smoke clears. Environmental scientist Danielle Stevenson is pioneering an alternative to the costly "dig-and-dump" approach that simply moves contaminated soil elsewhere. At fire sites across California, Danielle is harnessing fungi and native plants through a process called mycoremediation—using nature itself to break down pollutants, pull heavy metals from the ground, and help devastated landscapes heal.
🎤 Podcasts
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
Euronews Tech Talks: Could NASA really put a nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030?
NASA's decision to speed up plans for building a nuclear reactor on the Moon has raised questions about the United States' broader space strategy and renewed curiosity about the use of nuclear energy beyond Earth.
In this episode of Euronews Tech Talks, we address these questions with professor Simon Middleburgh, co-director of the Nuclear Futures Institute at the University of Bangor (UK), Alfredo Carpineti, astrophysicist and senior science writer at IFL Science, and Francesco Lodi, researcher at ENEA (Italy).
CXO Bytes: How Much Energy Does Google's AI Use?
Host Sanjay Podder speaks with Cooper Elsworth, Google's lead for AI and cloud emissions insights, about the real energy, carbon, and water footprint of AI systems. They discuss Google's groundbreaking research on measuring AI's environmental impact using empirical data rather than estimates, revealing a comprehensive methodology, with Cooper explaining how Google's full stack approach, spanning hardware, software, data centers, and clean energy procurement, has cut Gemini's carbon footprint by 44x in a year. The conversation also explores the balance between energy efficiency and water usage, the role of transparent metrics in driving climate action, and how AI can be scaled sustainably without undermining net-zero goals.
Catalyst: Calibrating hype with Akshat Rathi
n the climate space, every idea sits somewhere along the hype continuum. Some command outsize attention. Others fly under the radar despite big potential. And a rare few hit the sweet spot, earning exactly the buzz they deserve.
But how do you tell which is which?
Environment Variables: Software Architecture for Sustainability
Guest host Anne Currie speaks with Karthik Vaidhyanathan, Assistant Professor at IIIT Hyderabad, about integrating sustainability into AI development. They discuss how the world can balance digital growth with renewable energy goals and how AI systems can be designed to be energy-efficient rather than energy-intensive. Karthik shares insights from his research on sustainable AI and MLOps, including dynamically selecting and retraining models to cut energy use and costs without compromising performance.
Outrage + Optimism: Inside COP, The New World Order - power, politics and the green pie
The global balance of power is shifting. Can climate diplomacy keep up?
As China rises, the BRICS expand and the United States retreats, new power blocks formed by competition and conflict will take centre stage in the negotiations in Belem. In this week's Inside COP, Tom Rivett-Carnac, Christiana Figueres, Paul Dickinson and Fiona McRaith ask: what will it take for COP30 to foster genuine cooperation in a changing world? And who will get a slice of the new green economy?
📅 Submitted events
Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.
📅 CAT Workshop: Designing Responsibly in the Age of AI
Wednesday, October 29th | 16:00 - 17:30 GMT
Zoom 📩 RSVP https://luma.com/2cf0sfmc
Through stories, small-group reflection and hands-on exercises we'll examine and discuss how AI is showing up in our work, and what we can do to shape it with a bit more care, curiosity and conscience. You don't need to be an AI expert (in fact, that's the point). This session is open to the public, invite your colleagues! Led by CAT member Paolo Rizzi, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Principal at ustwo.
Thursday Oct 23, 2025 - Make It Count: Sustainability Comms Workshop
AimHi Earth would love to invite you and your team to join our free Sustainability Comms Workshop, a live and interactive 90-minute session to learn how you can make every sustainability conversation count, and put your new skills into practice 🌿
Thursday Nov 13, 2025 - ecoCompute Conference 2025
Full Programm Released
The ecoCompute conference coming up in November 2025 has just released it's full two day program .
It will feature three tracks:
Software & Hardware
Data Centers / Infrastructure / Management
Community Track
as well as hands-on workshops.
📰 News Highlights
GoodGoodGood: This teen invented an autonomous 'sea turtle robot' to monitor coral reefs.
Evan Budz, a 15-year-old from Ontario, Canada, is receiving global recognition for his invention: An autonomous bionic sea turtle robot. The robot, which uses artificial intelligence to monitor ecological systems underwater, won Budz a first-place prize in the European Union Contest for Young Scientists.
OECD: There are many ways to minimise water use related to AI operations, but they may not be what you think
Although AI-related workloads account for only 15% of data centre electricity use today, they are the fastest-growing driver of new demand, and their share is expected to increase rapidly. What is less obvious but more important is that AI depends on an electricity system that is itself highly water-intensive. Minimising water use in data centres and electricity sources requires innovation, collaboration and tailored strategies.
Ember: How Spain cut the link between gas and power prices using renewables
Spain has some of the lowest wholesale electricity prices in Europe, largely owing to the country's strong solar and wind growth which reduced the influence of expensive coal and gas power on the electricity market.
PublicTechnology: Defra digital sustainability strategy sets 80% refurbished device target
A new digital sustainability strategy created by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pledges to reduce technology-based emissions by a sixth while ensuring a vast majority of staff devices are refurbished machines and requiring many of the organisation's suppliers to commit a net zero plan.
Quantum Zeitgeist: Spiking Neural Network Architecture Search Survey Highlights Hardware/Software Co-Design for Efficient Processing
Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) represent a fundamentally new approach to artificial intelligence, offering the potential for dramatically improved power efficiency and real-time processing, particularly for applications at the edge and within the Internet of Things.
The Conversation: Indigenous knowledge systems can be useful tools in the G20's climate change kit
Indigenous knowledge systems are bodies of knowledge that were developed and used by local communities for centuries. They shape how people understand their environment, solve problems, and live sustainably. Bennet Siyabonga Madonsela, environmental scientist and Indigenous knowledge systems researcher, explains how these systems can help the world adapt to climate change, and what South Africa, as 2025 president of the G20 group of most powerful economies, should do to promote them.
💚 Papers We Love 💚
University of York and RCA: Aligning Digital Futures with Ecological Citizenship for Sustainability
As digital technology continues to embed and influence everyday life, its social and environmental impacts need to be addressed seriously. This article introduces and clarifies the concept of Ecological Citizenship (EC), defining it as a form of citizenship that extends rights and duties beyond the human social sphere into ecological systems, requiring individuals, communities, and institutions to take responsibility for the environmental consequences of their digital practices. Unlike traditional forms of citizenship tied to legal or territorial boundaries, EC is grounded in shared ecological accountability and civic responsibility.
💼 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.
Thalo Labs - Director of Software Engineering and Machine Learning - $190,000-$240,000K - Permanent - Onsite only
Thalo Labs is looking for a Director of Software Engineering and Machine Learning to join us in our mission to change the landscape of HVAC Infrastructure and transform the built environment into a carbon sink!
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