🌍 CAT Newsletter 310- 2026-04-05
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 310 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
✍️ From the blog
We're officially introducing the Responsible AI Event Series with events planned for April, May, June, July, September, and November. We'll keep you updated in the "📅 CAT Events" section once we set the exact dates and you can also subscribe to our Luma page to stay notified.
🧑 Who's who
"Who's who" is a new page listing CAT members and things they know about*. If you're looking for the best person to ask about a topic, consider looking here!
*you'll need to log in with your CAT Slack account to see this page in our knowledge base Outline - if you're having trouble you can follow the steps here
👀 Looking for new volunteers
These roles give you the freedom to try new approaches and they offer an experience of volunteering with a lovely team for a climate-focussed community. We're looking for volunteers in the following roles to join us for 6 months:
What you do: Coordinate and respond to Code of Conduct incidents or spam, refresh our community principles
What's in it for you: Experience with community moderation, writing, and volunteer management
Apply by sending a message in #cat-volunteer-interest
What you do: Respond to Code of Conduct incidents or spam, share ideas for improving our documentation
What's in it for you: Experience with community moderation
Apply by sending a message in #cat-volunteer-interest
What you do: Lead the quarterly evaluation meetings for mini grant applications, lead the volunteer team, be in charge of keeping the community up to date with the program (coordinate newsletter updates and blog posts)
What's in it for you: Experience with program leadership, a behind the scenes of non-profit finance flows, and volunteer management
Apply by sending a message in #cat-volunteer-interest\n\nNone of these sound fun? Look at all open roles on Miro
📅 CAT events (See all)
Wed, Apr 8 - The Trap of Easy Solutions: A Systems Archetype Workshop [online] - this #cat-systems-series workshop will give you a practical mental tool: a way to recognize when a solution is masking a deeper issue
Apr 9 - Meme-tivisim - Rethinking AI's environmental impact in #local-london [in-person] - part of our Responsible AI series, this is a 2-hour, fun, hands-on, in-person workshop where we'll explore how memes can help us re-think the environmental impact and sustainability of AI & ML
🍩 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, Apr 10th. More info
Media, events, and news
▶️ CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
Bloomberg Originals: Inventions That Could Help Heal the Planet
From ancient stone tools to modern breakthroughs, human ingenuity has always helped us adapt and thrive. In this episode of An Optimist's Guide to the Planet, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau travels to Peru, Ecuador, the Netherlands and France to meet the bold innovators reimagining nature's potential. Whether it's reinventing concrete to turn cities into carbon sinks or mining nickel from hyperaccumulating plants, these trailblazers are redefining what it means to build a sustainable future.
🎤 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 Climate Question:What's it like being a Chief Heat Officer?
As climate change makes the world hotter, some cities have appointed so-called Chief Heat Officers to try to improve their response to record-breaking temperatures.
In 2024, Graihagh Jackson spoke to two women who have done the job in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Monterrey, Mexico. What does their role involve? What solutions are out there? And do they get enough funding?
Sustainable IT Talks:Sustainability Beyond the Buzzword with Victor Norberg
Sustainability is everywhere in today's business conversations – but what does it actually mean in practice?
In this episode of Sustainable IT Talks, hosts Allard Pheifer (CHG-MERIDIAN) and Ola Fagerström (Microsoft Sweden) are joined by Victor Norberg from 2050 Consulting to unpack some of the biggest misconceptions around sustainability. Together they explore how the word "sustainability" has become a buzzword that can sometimes create polarization rather than progress. The conversation dives into why sustainability should not only be seen as a cost or compliance exercise, but as a way to create long-term value, reduce risks, and make better business decisions.
Zero, the Climate Race: Climate tech makes Europe more resilient to Iran War shocks](https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/zero-the-climate/climate-tech-makes-europe-ifATGaN0HIq/ "Climate tech makes Europe more resilient to Iran War shocks")
Will the Iran War finally be the moment where countries move to renewables en masse, or will they rely more heavily on fossil fuels? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi is joined by Aurore Belfrage, a tech investor, geopolitical risk advisor, and sustainability strategist, to look at how the energy investment landscape is changing with a fresh war in the Middle East, and how climate tech is making countries more resilient.
Environment Variables: Local AI & Lean Observability
Hosts Kate and Tzviya unpack the latest news This Week in Green Software, focusing on how sustainability is increasingly being integrated into everyday engineering decisions. They explore the push toward earlier measurement and accountability, the role of tooling in helping developers understand energy use, and the growing influence of policy and industry initiatives. The conversation highlights both the challenges and opportunities in making sustainability a standard part of software design, rather than an afterthought.
Outrage + Optimism: Forecasting Disaster - A 'super' El Niño? And the case for early action
As headlines warn of a possible 'super El Niño' later this year, we ask: how do we respond to a warning before it becomes a catastrophe?
The last major El Niño brought record heat, crop failures, flooding and deepening food insecurity across large parts of the world. This time, the question is not only what may be coming, but whether we are any better prepared to act on the warning?
Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson look at what the forecasts do and do not tell us about the climate ahead in 2026, and what it means to prepare for a crisis that is still uncertain, but increasingly hard to ignore.
Catalyst: Building a domestic nuclear fuel supply chain
Even as momentum grows for U.S. nuclear, the fuel supply chain is often overlooked. This dynamic is shifting as the industry wakes up to critical choke points and a heavy reliance on countries like Russia for enrichment. As America aims to reduce geopolitical dependency in energy, fixing these domestic gaps has become a strategic priority.
In this episode Shayle Kann speaks with Scott Nolan, the CEO of General Matter. The company is focused on enrichment, one of the most acute risk areas in the supply chain. Shayle and Scott also discuss the big-picture state of nuclear fuel, from mining to advanced reactor requirements.
📅 Submitted events
Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.
Thursday Apr 16, 2026 - Beyond Nature-based Solutions learning session (Co-creation with the More-than-Human sandbox)
What if nature-based solutions weren't primarily about serving human needs, but about co-creating multispecies communities where care and cohabitation shape how we design and inhabit places? Join us for our 12th learning session to explore this and other questions.
Wednesday Apr 22, 2026 - The Carbon Market Emerging Beneath AI
A timely conversation about carbon removal during San Francisco Climate Week - at a gorgeous private residence. This event brings together AI founders, engineers and investors who care about climate and want to get involved in CDR.
Wednesday Apr 22, 2026 - Climate Tech Time
Climate Tech Time is the UK’s largest monthly gathering for climate tech. We bring together 150+ investors, startups, government and climate enthusiasts for meaningful conversations.
Thursday May 14, 2026 - Founders Connect
An event laser-focused on founders to tap into incredible resources and free advice from experts through 7 types of office hours (legal, branding, fundraising), founder fireside chats, and problem-solving workshops.
Wednesday May 20, 2026 - Climate Tech Time
Climate Tech Time is the UK’s largest monthly gathering for climate tech. We bring together 150+ investors, startups, government and climate enthusiasts for meaningful conversations.
Thursday May 21, 2026 - The Reverse Pitch: Climate VCs in the Hot Seat
In a playful turn of events, the VCs will be taking the stage to pitch themselves to the room. After presenting, each VC will be put on the spot by a panel of founders, answering the questions founders care about, live on stage. Anyone in the ecosystem is welcome to join!
📰 News Highlights
The Tech Buzz: Google Opens SpeciesNet AI Model for Wildlife Conservation
Google releases SpeciesNet, an open-source AI model designed to help wildlife conservationists identify and track species. The model addresses a critical bottleneck in conservation work where researchers manually review thousands of camera trap images. Open-source availability means conservation groups globally can deploy the tool without licensing costs or technical barriers.
The Wire China: China's Climate Focus is Shifting from Carbon Cuts to Green Tech Dominance
For the past decade, China framed its climate strategy around emissions control. President Xi Jinping made headlines in 2020 by pledging to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. These "dual carbon" goals remain in place, but his ambitions have plateaued.
Greenpeace: The energy and environmental impact of AI and how it undermines democracy
The environmental impact of AI is becoming harder to ignore, from soaring energy use and water consumption to the rapid expansion of data centres and microchip production. What is being built in the name of innovation is also concentrating power, intensifying surveillance and deepening democratic risk.
BISI: Latin America's Data Center Dilemma - Sold on Renewables, Powered by Fossil Fuels
Latin America has experienced exponential growth in data center projects due to its abundant renewable energy, primarily hydropower. Digitalisation and the growth of AI capabilities requiring more data centers have created a power deficit that renewable sources have struggled to address due to their intermittency. This growing gap poses huge financial, environmental, and policy challenges for achieving climate goals in Latin America.
Japan Times: India bets on e-waste for critical minerals
India is cashing in on the growing "e-waste" sector — pulling critical minerals like lithium and cobalt, which are needed to make everything from smartphones to fighter jets and electric cars, from everyday electronics.
Mobile World Live: Deutsche Telekom cloud revamp slashes 5G energy use
Deutsche Telekom claimed energy savings of up to 65 per cent in its 5G core network following initial live tests of a new cloud-based architecture developed in partnership with Lenovo, HPE, AMD and Mavenir.
Mongabay: Today is Jane Goodall Day. Her movement continues.
April 3, now recognized as Jane Goodall Day, is intended as a day of action—an invitation to carry forward the habits and responsibilities she encouraged, rather than simply commemorate her life. The day reflects a broader idea at the center of her life's work—that progress depends less on scale or certainty than on individuals choosing to act, where they are, with what they have.
💚 Papers We Love 💚
WEF: Nature Positive - The Role of the Technology Sector
Technology permeates every facet of daily life. More than 1 trillion semiconductors are sold annually, while over 11,000 data centres are handling everything from streaming to 2 billion+ prompts sent daily to AI models. However, the sector remains dependent on limited natural resources and faces increasing physical threats from extreme weather events, which climate change and nature loss are exacerbating.
💼 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 - Digital Project Manager - €30,000 - €40,000 Euros per year - Permanent - Totally remote
We're hiring a Project Manager with digital project experience, a high level of ownership, organization, and collaboration skills.
WHY US?
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 enthusiastic 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. We design and develop data-driven tools and applications for international organizations focusing on climate change, biodiversity, and inequality.
WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?
Collaborate with a diverse team of professionals. Develop tools that are informing how to tackle climate change worldwide. Enjoy remote work, flexible schedules, and paid time off. Experience a work culture that values autonomy, community and growth.
Enverse - Business Development Manager - GBP 40000-70000 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Enverse is hiring a high-impact Business Development Manager to drive growth in industrial energy optimisation. This is a hands-on, technical role focused on building pipeline, engaging engineering stakeholders, and converting opportunities into funded projects and commercial deals. Work directly with the CEO at the intersection of IoT, AI, and decarbonisation. Ideal for candidates with 3–7 years in energy or industrial sectors who thrive on ownership, pace, and delivering measurable revenue impact.
Enverse - Senior Backend Engineer - £40,000.00-£70,000.00 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Enverse is hiring a Senior Backend Developer to build and scale a cutting-edge industrial data and analytics platform. This is a high-ownership role working directly with the CEO, shaping backend architecture, APIs, and cloud/edge systems using Python, FastAPI, and AWS. Ideal for experienced engineers who thrive in fast-paced environments and want real technical influence, with a clear path toward leadership in a growing IoT and energy-focused startup.
Natcap - Senior Product Designer - Up to £70K - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
The world is facing a nature crisis. We have lost 85% of the world’s wetlands, 35% of its forests, and 65% of its living creatures. Action on nature is the next frontier for sustainability, as the world expands beyond a narrow focus on net zero. Natcap is at the forefront of this movement. Natcap is the market leader in Nature Intelligence and has recently raised funding and is poised for significant growth.
We’re looking for a Senior Product Designer to take ownership of design at Natcap. You will join the team responsible to transform the business from consulting to product-led. Our recently launched product has an established foundation and you will be responsible for raising the quality, consistency, and impact of design across the platform.
This role is both hands-on and strategic: improving what exists, introducing stronger design practices, and helping the product evolve into a more mature, scalable system.
Icebreaker One - Stakeholder Engagement Coordinator - £28k (4-day week, Mon-Thu) - Permanent - Totally remote
Icebreaker One’s mission is to make data work harder to enable us to live within planetary boundaries. We focus on sector- and market-scale data governance to reduce risk and increase the flow of money and resources into decarbonisation and nature-enhancing initiatives. Fundamental to the success of our programmes is that solutions are developed in collaboration with, by, and for the sectors we support. The Stakeholder Engagement Coordinator will support the Account Manager in maintaining and progressing a pipeline of stakeholder and client relationships, ensuring consistent and timely communication.
Support our work
You can support us financially on Open Collective.