Hey CATs,

Welcome to issue 305 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

#️⃣ Slack conversation highlight

#3-questions-and-ideas: While browsing software engineering job listings this past month D has been surprised by how many listings are explicitly asking for devs who use AI coding tools, even on climate-focused job boards. D personally prefers not to use AI tools due to the lack of transparency around its environmental/ethical impact, which leaves them at a bit of a loss of how to navigate the current job market. How is everyone else navigating this recent change? Are there job boards you can recommend? Have you considered (or followed through on) a career shift? Have you found tools you consider sustainable? Join the conversation in the thread

🫵 Looking for new organizers - keep CAT going / help us thrive

Apply or nominate someone to join as our Comms / content organiser who maintains and improves our website, newsletter, social media presence, and internal knowledge base

Apply or nominate someone to join as our Partnerships organiser who builds a movement by developing relationships with other climate & tech groups (GSF, Green IO, GWF, etc.) and implements joint projects

You can see all open volunteering roles here and if you can't support us with your time, you can support us financially with one-off or recurring donations via OpenCollective.

🍩 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, Mar 6th. More info.

Media, events, and news

😺 CAT recommendations

▶️ CAT videos

10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.

Ketan Joshi: The AI climate hoax

The big tech industry's claims about the climate benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) are a hoax, according to a new report. A staggering 74% of claims about AI's climate benefits are unproven, serving the profits of tech and fossil fuel industries, while downplaying the major climate harms of generative AI.The research looks at 154 statements claiming AI will serve as a net climate benefit – including from companies like Google and Microsoft, and from institutions such as the International Energy Agency – and, for the first time, critically analysed the assertion that AI will be a net benefit to climate action, making up for the increased fossil fuel demand by AI-driven data centres.

🎤 Podcasts

The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs - and there's a full playlist of all the podcast episodes shared in this newsletter this year so far, on ListenNotes - catch up with last year's here!

The AI Sustainability Podcast: A Sustainability Leader's Guide to using AI Responsibly with Alison Taylor

In this episode of the AI Sustainability podcast, host Nina Benoit speaks with Alison Taylor, a clinical professor at NYU Stern School of Business, about the intersection of artificial intelligence and sustainability. They discuss the challenges and opportunities that AI presents for leaders in corporate sustainability, the importance of ethical governance structures, and the evolving role of sustainability professionals in the age of AI.

Green IO: Streaming, Networks and Sustainability, with Dom Robinson

Does it really make sense to measure carbon per gigabyte?Or should we be adapting our sustainability metrics to focus on more meaningful elements of the digital streaming supply chain?

Here to discuss many common misconceptions around network energy consumption, is Dom Robinson. Dom is the founder and CSO at Greening of Streaming, an organisation brining together tech providers and media companies with the aim of reducing our environmental impact.\nFrom radio to streaming, Dom provides an easy to follow, insider's guide to the different types of digital networks, and how they consume energy.

Energ'ethic: Solar Is Easy. Neighbours Are Not.

Solar is technically simple. Scaling it is not.

In Central and Eastern Europe, 60% of people live in multi-family buildings. These buildings concentrate energy poverty, fragmented ownership, tight budgets and collective decision-making. And yet, every time solar approaches a multi-family building, coordination begins.

Who carries liability?\nWho guarantees mounting safety?\nWho stays present when after-sales disappears?

From plug and play to trust and repair, this is the real work of the energy transition.

All Things Policy: Analysing India's AI Ecosystem

In this episode of All Things Policy, Adya Madhavan speaks with Bharat Reddy and Anwesha Sen about the AI Impact Summit and their insights on some of the ideas that were discussed. They analyse the strategic, economic, and physical realities of India's growing AI ecosystem.

Outrage + Optimism: Catastrophe Apathy - Why understanding the climate crisis isn't enough

Climate concern is not the problem. Most people have it. What's missing is everything that turns concern into action - and understanding that gap turns out to be a lot more complicated than it looks.

This week, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson sit down with Lorraine Whitmarsh, Professor of Environmental Psychology and Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations at the University of Bath. Together they dig into the psychology behind catastrophe apathy: why understanding an existential threat doesn't always lead to action, and what the research says actually moves people.

The Climate Question: China's green energy revolution

China is installing solar panels and wind turbines so fast that its greenhouse gases emissions may now have peaked. If this trend is confirmed, it would be a major milestone in the fight against climate change because China is the world's largest polluter. But China's addiction to coal is continuing – with new power plants still being built and many poorer Chinese needing to burn coal to get through the winter.

In this edition of The Climate Question,we discuss whether the world's biggest polluter is moving fast enough to meet its green energy targets, and what that means for China and the rest of the world.

📅 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 Mar 03, 2026 - Make It Count: Sustainability Communication Workshop

The ultimate 90-minute workshop to get to grips with how you can make every sustainability conversation count.

✅ Start better conversations about sustainability ✅ Avoid the awkwardness or overwhelm ✅ Share your passion in a way that invites curiosity – not shutdown

Wednesday Mar 04, 2026 - ​Build a climate-literate work culture with Drew Wilkinson

Climate Conscious Leaders is hosting Drew Wilkinson: a co-founder of Microsoft's 10,000 member employee sustainability community, and a consultant who brings climate consciousness to all parts of a professional organization, driving cultural change through employee engagement.

Wednesday Mar 25, 2026 - Climate Tech Time

If you work in climate tech and want to engage in meaningful conversations, this is the place to be. We also offer additional programming earlier in the day to deepen connections and provide more opportunities for collaboration.

Thursday Mar 26, 2026 - UX Jumpstart: Design products that drive real action for climate tech

Working on digital products leveraging environmental data? Join us for a practical 1-hour session designed for founders, technical, product or marketing leads working at the intersection of tech, climate, and data.

📰 News Highlights

PR Newswire: Green Data Center Market to Register 28.31% CAGR Through 2032, Amid Rising Sustainability Mandates

According to the latest market research study published by MarkNtel Advisors, the Global Green Data Center Market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of around 28.31% during 2026–2032.

Trellis: Microsoft, Autodesk and SwissRe among companies with highest internal carbon fees

A survey of more than 220 companies with internal carbon prices (ICPs) has revealed the range of ways in which this powerful yet relatively little-used emissions reduction strategy is being deployed.

Companies that set carbon prices levy a fee on every ton of carbon dioxide emitted and commit to spending the funds on internal or external climate projects.

Inside Climate News: The Farming Industry Has Embraced 'Precision Agriculture' and AI, but Critics Question Its Environmental Benefits

Agriculture has become so digitally advanced that farming is now a highly data-driven, algorithmic enterprise. The global digital farming market was worth nearly $30 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach more than $84 billion in eight years.

All of this has come with a promise: that greater precision in the field will conserve resources, reduce pesticides and lower fertilizer use, along with its associated greenhouse gas emissions.

The Guardian: Trump touts 'drill, baby, drill' agenda – but no mention of climate crisis

Trump didn't say the words "climate change" during the State of the Union, but it loomed large over his 108-minute speech as he touted his "drill, baby, drill" agenda and derided Joe Biden's "green new scam".

The Conversation: New technologies are stepping up the global fight against wildlife trafficking

Interpol coordinated a global operation across 134 nations, seizing roughly 30,000 live animals, confiscating illegal plant and timber products, and identifying about 1,100 suspected wildlife traffickers for national police to investigate.

EuroNews: How this 'flying' ferry is transforming Stockholm's waterways

The Swedish capital's hydrofoil electric ferry slashes emissions by up to 94%, according to a new report. In late 2024, commuters in Stockholm gained a novel way to cross the Swedish capital: a 'flying' electric ferry.Just over a year later and the project has been declared a resounding success by the Swedish Transport Administration following an evaluation of its pilot route.

💚 Papers We Love 💚

Imposing AI: Deceptive design patterns against sustainability

Generative AI is being massively deployed in digital services, at a scale that will result in significant environmental harm. This paper documents how tech companies are transforming established user interfaces to impose AI use and show how and to what extent these strategies fit within established deceptive pattern categories. The team identify two main design strategies that are implemented to impose AI use in both personal and professional contexts: imposing AI features in interfaces at the expense of existing non-AI features and promoting narratives about AI that make it harder to resist using it. The paper discusses opportunities for regulating the imposed adoption of AI features, which would inevitably lead to negative environmental effects.

💼 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.

Vizzuality - Back End Engineer - 30.000 Eur to 49.000 Eur depending on experience - Permanent - Totally remote

We're on the lookout for a Back-End Engineer with experience and proficiency in NodeJS/TypeScript/Python and a strong DevOps mindset to join our team at Vizzuality.

We expect our engineers not just to write code, but also to deploy, operate, and maintain the infrastructure it runs on.

At Vizzuality, our purpose is to reach a fair and sustainable planet by creating tools that radically empower people to make positive changes now. 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.

Bioregional - Insights & Engagement Coordinator (Corporate Sustainability) - £28,500-34,000 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok

We're looking for a bright, organised and creative Insights & Engagement Coordinator who is passionate about sustainability and supporting businesses on their transformation journeys. Deadline: 9am Monday 2 March 2026

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