Hey CATs,

Welcome to issue 313 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

🌍🌎🌏 Share your Earth Day activities

We would love little blurbs and bits from as many members of CAT that feel comfortable sharing so that we can connect with each other in the community. 💚 If we get enough responses, we can include it in our newsletter and maybe even a blog post!

So far…

• C shared a handmade craft of the Earth with small reminders and a LinkedIn post to raise awareness
• S shared a board with resources, reflection questions, and action ideas with her colleagues at work - the content focuses on data centers and energy impact of tech (incl. AI) and a lot of inspiration for the content came from fellow CATs
• S shared a cheatsheet for the Web Sustainability Guidelines and reflected on bringing more empathy to facilitation
• G has been reading a climate fiction book and another novel and discussed the definition of Responsible AI at work - pushing for two complementary themes: ethics and footprint

Share your activity or action in the thread

🍩 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, May 8th. More info

Media, events, and news

▶️ CAT videos

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

Bloomberg Originals: Inside the Effort to Disrupt China's Grip on EV Batteries | Bloomberg Primer

China controls much of the global electric vehicle battery supply chain—from raw materials to finished cars. Now, domestic overcapacity and price wars are pushing its companies to expand overseas. At the same time, rivals are racing to compete, developing new battery chemistries and building supply chains outside China in a bid to challenge its dominance.

🎤 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!

Zero, the Climate Race: How China's engineering mindset won the clean-tech race

In his new book Breakneck, tech analyst Dan Wang argues China's engineering mindset has given it an edge in all sorts of domains, including climate technologies, while America's lawyerly mindset is holding it back. This week on Zero, Wang tells Akshat Rathi what the world can learn from China and how the US could start to compete on green tech in the future. 

Asynchronous and Unreliable: Anne Currie and Niki Manoledaki talk extreme operational efficiency

In the third episode of Asynchronous and Unreliable, Anne Currie and Niki Manoledaki of Grafana Labs discuss the highest end of operational efficiency, GreenOps, and Finops using purely open source solutions including Kubernetes, Kepler and the Vertical Pod Autoscaler. What can you do with them and what is the vital technology you need in place before you attempt it? Real life stories!

Catalyst: Live from Transition-AI 2026: Inside Google's massive AI CapEx

As the race to build out artificial intelligence accelerates, the infrastructure required to support it is undergoing a remarkable transformation. In February, Google announced a plan to spend $175 billion to $185 billion in CapEx for 2026— a figure roughly equivalent to the GDP of Hungary.

In this special live episode, recorded at Transition-AI 2026 in San Francisco, Shayle sits down with Amin Vahdat, Google's chief technologist for AI infrastructure. Amin pulls back the curtain on how the hyperscaler is rethinking everything from data center reliability and behind-the-meter power generation to real-time inference.

Environment Variables: The Week in Green Software - CSRD and the SCI Standard

This Week in Green Software, hosts Carlos and Adi cover the latest developments in green software, including new insights into measuring and reducing the energy impact of digital systems. They explore research challenging common assumptions about efficiency, highlight practical tools for tracking software emissions, and discuss ongoing challenges in standardizing measurement. They also broaden the conversation around digital sustainability, emphasizing that it extends beyond carbon to include social and economic factors.

The Climate Question: Can technology help us fight flooding in cities?

With more and more people moving to cities, informal settlements are expected to grow. When floods hit these unplanned places, it can be disastrous, as we often don't know much about them. Crucial questions often remain difficult to answer, like how many people live there, what are the buildings made of, and could they withstand a flood?

In the township of Alexandra in Johannesburg, the BBC's Nomsa Maseko visits a project using drones and artificial intelligence to help authorities prevent the worst impacts of flooding. And in Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil, we hear how an innovative digital map helped the emergency response – and will soon be available to all for free across the world.

Outrage + Optimism: Beyond the Oil Crisis - What's actually blocking the transition?

The Iran crisis continues to prove how dangerously dependent the global economy is on fossil fuels. But what will it actually take to move beyond them?

In this episode, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson look at what the latest oil shock continues to reveal. And they turn to the upcoming First Conference on the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, where governments, campaigners and other actors are gathering to build new relationships and explore new routes towards a just transition in an age of geopolitical instability.

📅 Submitted events

Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.

Wednesday May 06, 2026 - Snackable Skills Workshop | Growth without the Footprint: 3 Models to Unlock Value from Underutilized Resources

Free workshop: Growth Without the Footprint. Learn 3 models for turning underutilized resources into new value, without growing emissions. Led by Renee Davis, ClimateTech CPO. Wed May 6, 3pm ET.

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.

Thursday May 14, 2026 - Seeing the Big Picture: Climate Action Tech with En-ROADS Simulator

This workshop will leverage the En-ROADS simulator to facilitate a discussion around Climate Action Tech, specifically focusing on bringing sustainability and efficiency into the technological sector.

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!

Friday Jun 19, 2026 - Pixel Pioneers Bristol

Pixel Pioneers, a conference for front-end developers and UX/UI designers, this year features a talk on designing and building for the low-carbon web. Sustainable web designer & developer Nick Lewis will explore how to reduce the footprint of our digital products and services.

Saturday Jun 20, 2026 - London Climate Action Week

London Climate Action Week harnesses the unique power of London for global and local climate action.

Mobilising London’s unparalleled ecosystem of climate and non-climate organisations to accelerate global climate action and supports action in London.

📰 News Highlights

BBC: Government accepts it wrongly approved data centre

Campaign groups Foxglove and Global Action Plan brought a case against the government and the developers at the High Court, arguing that the electricity demands of the facility were not properly considered.

European Comission: New AI approach bridges data gaps to improve toxicity assessment of chemicals

Researchers have used an AI technique to make 16 million predictions of chemical toxicity on over 1,250 different species. This data could be used to inform policies to reduce impact of chemical pollution on biodiversity.

Mongabay: Amid conflict and poaching, tech helps boost mountain gorilla numbers

Mountain gorillas face serious threats as they lose habitat and are stalked by poachers, but populations have jumped by 73% since 1989, now numbering an estimated 1,063.

A mobile tool called SMART is helping forest guards and conservationists collect data to better track and protect the apes and other wildlife.

Colorado Parent: Anythink Unveils First-Ever Nature Library

Adams County's public library system, Anythink Libraries, will open the first-of-its-kind Anythink Nature Library on August 8. Located on 15 acres of land in Thornton in the heart of the 140-acre Aylor Open Lands, Anythink's eighth branch will blend indoor and outdoor experiences designed to help the community explore nature, develop environmental stewardship, and build deeper connections with the natural world. 

Linkedin: Sustainability and AI Workforce Signals from the Twin Transition

This article focuses on sustainability and AI as a twin transition, and how the two are interacting to evolve both workforces. The role of AI for sustainability is supporting the further development of the green economy, exploring how AI is enabling green workers to advance in energy efficiency, climate solutions, and resource management. Workforce trends in sustainable AI, that is, AI's contributions to climate change, emphasize the importance of developing green skills among AI professionals and the workforce that supports AI's growth.

FinTech Magazine: Mastercard Scaling Fintech via Sustainable Tech Innovation

By integrating granular data and green engineering, Mastercard is successfully decoupling its global revenue growth from its environmental footprint.

💚 Papers We Love 💚

Association Green IT: Numérique Responsable - un levier stratégique de souveraineté numérique en France et en Europe

Cette étude propose d'analyser en profondeur comment une démarche de numérique responsable – intégrant sobriété, écoconception, low-tech, slow-tech et IA frugale – peut renforcer la souveraineté numérique de la France et de l'Europe.

Green IT Association: Responsible Digital Technology - a strategic lever for digital sovereignty in France and Europe

This study analyzes in depth how a responsible digital approach – integrating sobriety, eco-design, low-tech, slow-tech and frugal AI – can strengthen the digital sovereignty of France and Europe.

Paper only currently available in French.

💼 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.

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.

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