Hey CATs,

Welcome to issue 314 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 summarised Earth Day actions that were shared on Slack. It's not too late to share yours! What did you get up to for Earth Day this year? Share it with the community

⭕ CAT Coaching Circle

This is your chance to join a group of six other CATs for six sessions to talk and share about having a positive green computing impact in corporate organisations aka. at work.

This group will be facilitated by CAT volunteer @Jon Sleeper and you can sign up by messaging him directly or by reacting to this message with a 👍

📗 CAT Book Club

We're planning to get together to discuss "Empire of AI" this month. React to this message with a 👍 if you're up for meeting in May and we'll finalise a date. Join the #cat-book-club channel to stay up to date with the conversation

📅 CAT events (see all)

Thu, May 14 - Seeing the Big Picture: Climate Action Tech with En-ROADS Simulator [online] - this #cat-systems-series event will provide an insightful discussion to gain a systemic understanding of driving climate action within the tech sector

🍩 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.

Planet A: The organized crime you've never heard of

Billions of euros of illegal cooling gases are imported into Europe and sold unchecked all over the continent. They're banned because they can warm the planet way more quickly than CO2. We went undercover, exposing the dirty business of smuggling and selling banned refrigerants. Who profits? And how can they be stopped?

🎤 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: Chernobyl at 40 - Is nuclear power back in fashion?

In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear accident devastated the Soviet Union and shocked the world. But, 40 years on, are we now seeing a nuclear renaissance? And what does that mean for the climate?

Climate Question host Jordan Dunbar has just visited the most contaminated place in the world for a BBC World Service documentary. He tells co-host Graihagh Jackson about the ghostly atmosphere in the former Chernobyl control room and the huge dome that now covers the remains of the nuclear reactor that exploded.

Jordan and Graihagh also discuss how the disaster set back the nuclear power industry for decades. Now, however, nuclear is firmly back on the international agenda because of rising power demand and concerns about energy security.

Environment Variables: Tokens, Water, and Transparency

Tzviya Siegman and Kate Goldenring dive into the latest stories shaping green software, from the rising energy demands of AI to the practical tradeoffs developers face when building more efficient systems. They explore new ideas around measuring impact, smarter infrastructure choices, and how industry and policy are starting to respond. The conversation brings together real-world challenges and emerging solutions, showing how sustainability is quickly becoming a core part of modern software development.

Climate Curious: How Iroro Tanshi took on Nigeria's wildfires to save this rare bat species

In Nigeria's Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, a rare short-tailed roundleaf bat whose global population is less than 1500, is trying to survive – and their biggest threat is wildfire. Nigerian tropical ecologist, conservationist and 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa winner Iroro Tanshi joins Climate Curious to share how farmers are transforming into frontline fire brigades, what community-led climate resilience looks like on the ground in Nigeria, and how she got passionate about bats in the first place! The result? A new model for protecting both nature and livelihoods.

Outrage + Optimism: Is AMOC the hardest climate story to tell?

This week, Tom Rivett-Carnac is joined by the veteran BBC Science Editor and author of the upcoming 'The Response', to explore the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC: the vast system of currents that helps regulate weather, rainfall and temperature across the Atlantic and far beyond. Recent research suggests it may be weakening faster than previously understood - with potentially profound consequences for food systems, ecosystems and global stability.

Catalyst: How AI is modernizing EPCs

As the utility-scale solar market collides with an era defined by massive load growth, EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) firms are rethinking their strategy to meet the moment.

In this episode, Shayle speaks to George Hershman, CEO of SOLV Energy, one of the largest solar and storage construction firms in the US. George offers a unique perspective into the state of the market as well as the logistics of building gigawatt-scale projects and insights into how automation is changing the EPC game.

📅 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!

Tuesday Jun 09, 2026 - CiviCamp Birmingham

A practical one-day conference for anyone that uses or is interested in using CiviCRM (the open source CRM for non profits and similar). With a few sessions focused on case studies from sustainability and environmental charities - see https://brm2026.civicrm.org/sessions/

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

Wall Street Journal: Corporate Climate Accounting Could Be Heading for a Breakup

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is considering changing how companies report energy emissions, a move that could see it part ways with the Science Based Targets initiative

The Guardian: Officials hugely underestimated impact of AI datacentres on UK carbon emissions

The UK government vastly underestimated the climate impact of artificial intelligence, it has emerged, after officials raised their estimate of carbon emissions from AI by a factor of more than 100.

Mongabay: UN report flags disproportionate costs of clean energy transition

A new report published by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) warns that wealthy nations' push toward cleaner energy comes with high environmental and social costs in mineral-producing countries.

Any Job Can Be a Climate Job: Stop selling sustainability to your CFO

Sustainability lessons from 4 real companies, and how we turn the bad news into hope.

Carbon Brief: Traditional models still 'outperform AI' for extreme weather forecasts

Computer models that use artificial intelligence (AI) cannot forecast record-breaking weather as well as traditional climate models, according to a new study.

ComputerWeekly: Zero waste drives datacentre sustainability shift in UAE

Sustainability discussions in the datacentre sector have traditionally focused on power usage effectiveness (PUE), renewable energy sourcing and cooling innovation. But as operators scale infrastructure to meet the demands of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud workloads, another issue is rising to the forefront: waste.

Metropolis: 11 Tools Transforming Sustainable Design

Drawing on conversations and recommendations from sustainability and technology consultants across architecture, technology, construction, and urban planning, here is a snapshot of tools, systems, and approaches actively reshaping how design decisions are made.

💚 Papers We Love 💚

Green Web Foundation: State of the Fossil-Free Internet 2026

In this first annual briefing by the Green Web Foundation, we examine the biggest obstacles to a fossil-free internet. This year's focus: the rise of too many dirty data centres controlled by unaccountable companies. If you work in tech or on climate, this report will help you navigate this vital topic and highlights meaningful pathways to a just and sustainable internet.

💼 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.

Global Canopy - Full Stack Developer (senior level) - £500 per day inc VAT (£400 outside UK due to reverse VAT charges) - Contract - Totally remote

We're looking for a contractor to start the build of a new platform to help us assess how companies and financial institutions address their links to deforestation. These assessments feed into impactful data products like Forest 500 and Forest IQ. We have a PRD and SRS in place, so are looking to get started building asap. The contractor will work in close collaboration with the existing small team. Our tech stack is Python FastAPI backend, Next.js with TypeScript frontend, hosted on AWS and deployed using terraform and GitHub Actions. We have funding for 66 days but are actively searching for more.

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