Hey CATs,

Welcome to issue 321 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.

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📅 CAT events (see all)

Local events were shared in #local-bristol and #local-london (a few CATs will be at the SustainableIT Impact Summit at London Climate Action Week on June 23rd)

And in #local-netherlands CATs are reflecting about Green IO Amsterdam

🍩 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, June 19th. More info

Media, events, and news

▶️ CAT videos

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

Bloomberg Originals: Inside the Race to Build AI Data Centers in Space

"Data centers in space" may sound like science fiction, but as the SpaceX IPO augurs a space boom, tech giants and startups are betting orbital artificial intelligence is the next frontier.

\n Building data centers in space is still a relatively nascent idea, but it's gaining traction and financial backing, as energy and space constraints limit the expansion of massive computing facilities here on Earth. Earlier this year, in the latest leg of their decades-long space race, Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin both announced plans to build and launch so-called orbital data centers.

🎤 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!

Catalyst: Enter the electric supercycle

While many energy insiders remain focused on the staggering demand coming from AI and data centers, a much larger and far-reaching shift is happening. We are entering what Energy Impact Partners' head of research Andy Lubershane calls the "electric supercycle" — a series of interlocking technological flywheels that are accelerating the clean energy transition faster than many may realize.

In this episode, Shayle sits down with Andy to map out the interconnected nature of the "electric stack." They unpack how early investments in solar and EVs are scaling up technologies that are now feeding back into grid infrastructure, and look ahead to the massive electricity demands of the coming robotics and defense industry boom. They also consider the pressing question of the ultimate rate limiters for meeting this demand.

Environment Variables: State of The Fossil-Free Internet

Kate and Tzviya explore the Green Web Foundation's State of the Fossil-free Internet 2026 report and what it reveals about transparency, energy use, and the environmental impact of today's digital infrastructure. The discussion examines the limitations of carbon accounting practices, the rapid growth of AI-driven data centers, and the role of policy, open source tools, and public accountability in driving meaningful change. They highlight why better measurement, clearer reporting, and greater awareness are essential for building a more sustainable internet.

Outrage + Optimism: From SpaceX to City Streets, Who Pays for the AI Data Centre Boom?

SpaceX's $1.75 trillion IPO has just created the world's first trillionaire. But for families in Morgan County, Georgia and Boxtown in South Memphis, the AI investment rush seems to look rather different: brown water, diesel fumes, and higher bills.

This week, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson take on the data centre boom - now one of the fastest-moving forces in the global energy system. Why exactly do so many of these buildings need to be situated so close to population centres? And why do the communities that end up hosting them so rarely get a meaningful say?

Zero, The Climate Race: The energy transition debate we need to have

The key to tackling climate change is moving away from burning fossil fuels to using renewable energy. But in his book More and More and More, French historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz argues that the world has never actually managed a successful energy transition before and current plans are unrealistic. Many have taken his writing to mean that stopping global warming is impossible, however, he tells Akshat Rathi this week on Zero, his view is actually quite different.

Transmission: Alleviating grid stresses with virtual power plants, with Michael Lynch

Electricity grids worldwide need both the flexibility to adapt to renewable energy sources, and the resilience to cope with grid-stress events. Demand curtailment and other forms of demand-side response (DSR) play an increasingly fundamental role in supporting both these requirements, yet direct participation in these programmes can be complex, and is typically geared towards high-demand customers with single, centralised sites.

However smaller, decentralised organisations can still unlock the benefits of DSR and provide a crucial grid service by working with an aggregator. By bringing multiple demand customers and sites together in a virtual power plant (VPP), aggregators help businesses of all sizes become major contributors to grid stability, without the challenges of managing individual enrolment themselves.

In this episode, Michael Lynch, manager of Enel X's global Network Operations Centre (NOC) in Dublin, joins Ed Porter to discuss the growing role of VPPs in helping stabilise global electricity grids.

📅 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 Jun 23, 2026 - Sustainable IT Impact Summit

Green IT isn't just compliance—it's a growth driver. At the 2026 Sustainable IT Impact Summit, leaders explore building the business case for sustainable IT, cutting costs via circular tech, deploying responsible AI, and turning sustainability into lasting business value.

📰 News Highlights

United Nations: AI's environmental costs threaten water, land and climate

Data centres, the global infrastructure powering AI, could consume 945 terawatt-hours of electricity annually by 2030 – nearly triple the combined annual electricity use of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria, countries collectively home to more than 650 million people. 

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. On top of the carbon footprint, every unit of electricity used by data centres also carries a "water footprint" for cooling and energy production, and a "land footprint" associated with power generation and supply chains. 

NewsGram: The rise of inclusive recycling projects in Latin America

Across Latin America, recycling plays a far more critical social and economic role than global averages might suggest. Despite worldwide advances in waste management, the region's average recycling rate remains strikingly low — around four percent. Yet, within this limited formal system, an estimated two million people make a living through informal recycling, forming an essential but often invisible backbone of urban waste recovery. For many of these workers, recycling is more than an environmental practice: it's a means of survival.

University of Arizona: New species are now being discovered faster than ever before, study suggests

According to a new University of Arizona-led study published in Science Advances, scientists are discovering species quicker than ever before, with more than 16,000 new species discovered each year. The trend shows no sign of slowing, and the team behind the new paper predicts that the biodiversity among certain groups, such as plants, fungi, arachnids, fishes and amphibians is richer than scientists originally thought. 

The Guardian: Datacenters driving US clean energy growth while still threatening climate

Datacenters are driving unprecedented growth in the US clean energy industry, paradoxically boosting a sector that was sputtering before the artificial intelligence boom even as AI's rollout creates immense environmental challenges.

GasWorld: Sicily's first green hydrogen project gets green light

Energy company Duferco Energia has received environmental approval from Sicilian authorities to build the island's first green hydrogen facility.

Supported with €10m ($11.6m) from Italy's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), the 1MW project could produce up to 100 tonnes of green hydrogen per year for use in industrial sectors like steel, logistics and mobility.

The Register: Microsoft once used its own brand of 'Lego' to optimize Windows

Former Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer spilled the beans on the practice, confirming that the company used an internal application called Basic Block Tool (BBT) – known internally as Microsoft Lego – to shuffle the internals of binaries to speed execution.

Yahoo! Finance: As AI Strains the Grid, Envision Launches Mission Gobi at VivaTech 2026

At VivaTech 2026, Envision announced Mission Gobi, a global initiative to develop 5GW of green AI data center (AIDC) capacity in desert and arid regions by 2030.

💚 Papers We Love 💚

Harvey Mudd College: User Tolerance as a Factor in Sustainable Website Design

The internet is responsible for 3.7% of the world's carbon emissions, a number that is expected to increase. Websites alone are a notable aspect of the internet experience, but there are design choices that web developers can make to lower the carbon footprint of their websites. However, such changes often present a tradeoff between a lower carbon footprint and traditional quality of experience (QoE) metrics. This work explores the type of QoE drop that users will tolerate to lower their carbon footprint, through a case study.

💼 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.

Boundless Impact Research & Analytics - Research Associate - $20/hr - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok

Boundless Impact Research & Analytics provides precise life cycle and techno-economic impact data for advanced technology companies, sustainable brands, and investors. Our analytics validate and differentiate sustainable products, reduce investment risk, and support credible reporting. Boundless blends science-based impact analysis, industry-specific benchmarks, and AI-driven data to deliver the insights companies need to prove their impact and thrive in the market.

Boundless Impact Research & Analytics (Boundless) is seeking a full-time Research Associate with environmental analysis and research experience, and an interest in and aptitude for applying Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) to clean energy and other advanced technologies. The Research Associate will support the Boundless research team across sustainability performance analysis projects (using LCA and TEA).

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