Hey CATs,

Welcome to issue 325 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 channel highlights

#greener-ai: C shared some good resources including Greening AI in the Public Sector: An Introductory Handbook for Procurement

#carbon-footprint: R is posing a thought-experiment inspired by carbon footprint calculations of travel - should data transfer be excluded in carbon calculations because the technology is running anyway? Is this logic fair or flawed? Share your thoughts

#greener-webdev: Channel host J gave a little shoutout to F’s latest work - An impact framework for the Web Sustainability Guidelines

❤️ Help a CAT

A is looking for sustainable hosting providers based in #local-netherlands - share your recommendations

📅 CAT events (see all)

Wed, Sep 9 - CAT Book Club: Enshittification [online]

🍩 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, July 31st. More info

Media, events, and news

▶️ CAT videos

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

Erin Brockovich Warns AI Data Centers Are Draining America’s Water

She warns that these facilities place an unsustainable burden on public infrastructure, leading to significant utility bill hikes and negative health impacts for surrounding communities.

🎤 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!

Climate Curious: How Nigeria is leading a repair transition, not just an energy one, with Vincent Egoro

Africa is solar rich. But what happens when the panels stop working? Vincent Egoro – a former architecture student who once studied by candlelight and now founder of Energy Transition Africa – is betting on training over throwaway tech. His mission: teach local workers to maintain and fix solar panels, so clean energy doesn't quietly break down two years after installation: unnoticed and unfixed. As he tells Climate Curious co-host Maryam Pasha, electrifying is only half the job – the other half is making sure it sticks. A champion of skills as infrastructure to power Africa’s clean energy future, Vincent won the TEDx Global Idea Search in Nigeria. Recorded at TED2026, in conversation with Climate Curious co-host Maryam Pasha.

Shantanu Agarwal: The $100m Carbon Removal Breakthrough

Mati Carbon, led by founder and Mulago fellow Shantanu Agarwal, made history in April 2025 by winning the $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal. In this episode, Shantanu shares how Mati uses enhanced rock weathering to turn pollution into soil-enriching fertilizer for smallholder farmers in the Global South. We discuss the unique model that combines rigorous climate science with a non-profit governance structure, exploring whether effective climate solutions can be both technically credible and distributively fair.

Catalyst: Inside the AI power wars

For those steeped in the world of AI development, the major differences between tech giants’ chip strategies are easy enough to see: the speed of Google’s TPUs, the affordability of Amazon’s Trainium, and Nvidia’s market dominance. But those same companies’ respective energy strategies often fly under the radar.

As data center buildouts surge across the U.S., the tech industry is hitting a massive wall: a power grid that can’t move fast enough to support them. In this episode, Shayle sits down with Jeremie Eliahou Ontiveros, who leads coverage of infrastructure and power at SemiAnalysis, to lift the curtain on the hyper-competitive world of AI energy procurement. 

Thinking on Paper: AI Inference, Wasted GPUs And The Cost Of Every Token

AI companies are splashing billions on more GPUs before they use the ones they already have. Many sit idle, others use a fraction of their potential. 

For the hyperscalers, cloud providers and AI companies, buying more GPUs does not solve much if the GPUs already in the rack spend too much time waiting for the rest of the system.

The next battle in the AI infrastructure wars is efficiency: GPU utilization, NICs, memory movement, networking, CPUs and software that keeps expensive hardware doing useful work.

Why the Nordics Are Becoming Europe’s Next Data Center Hub | Live at Datacloud Global Congress 2026

In the second episode of our series recorded live at Datacloud Global Congress 2026 in Cannes, Andy Davis is once again joined by co-host Rory Flashman from Spa Communications to explore why the Nordics have become one of the most talked-about regions in the European data centre market.

📅 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 Aug 04, 2026 - Make It Count: Sustainability Communication Workshop

Professionals from any sector can join Make it Count: Sustainability Communication Workshop.

Learn and put into practice the behavioural science behind making every sustainability conversation count!

Wednesday Aug 05, 2026 - ​Sustainable AI-Native Building

AI is accelerating climate solutions — but data centers contribute 0.5% of global CO2. Learn audit tools and prompts to reduce your AI footprint immediately. Led by Ida Wainschel Cools.

📰 News Highlights

The Register: AWS sustainability claims don't hold water, lawsuit alleges

Ex-staffer accuses Amazon's Virginia datacenters of quietly guzzling H20 all year round, despite 'water positive' PR push

A&O Shearman: Data center legitimacy in an era of environmental, climate, and social scrutiny

As data center expansion accelerates to meet AI demand, operators must address mounting environmental, human rights and community concerns with credible sustainability strategies that strengthen their social license to operate.

AI Magazine: Arcadis, Google, IFS and ServiceNow on AI in Sustainability

Leaders from Arcadis, Google, IFS and ServiceNow came together during Sustainability LIVE at LCAW to discuss the convergence of AI and sustainability

LSE Business Review: An ambitious call to build sustainable AI

The perception of AI as “virtual” obscures its enormous industrial footprint and energy consumption. The next frontier of AI competitiveness will depend not only on scaling compute but on reducing energy per computation. In an extract from a new book Angel Melguizo and Victor Muñoz explains whyenergy efficiencies will decide the digital race and makes the case for believing in a greener future for AI.

Yahoo! Finance: U.S. Sustainable Data Centers Market Report 2026-2031

The U.S. sustainable data center market is projected to expand significantly, with an expected CAGR of 11.85% between 2025 and 2031. This growth is driven by data center operators adopting greener technologies and energy-efficient practices across various infrastructure components.

Global Banking & Finance Review: Portugal seeks high-value data centres, not to become Europe's dumping ground

Portugal aims to attract high‑value, sustainable data‑centre projects—like the 1.2 GW Start Campus in Sines—focusing on productivity, economic spillovers and renewable‑powered infrastructure rather than becoming a site for energy‑hungry, low‑return facilities.

💚 Papers We Love 💚

Computing within Limits: Environmental (in)considerations in the Design of Smartphone Settings

Designing for sufficiency is one of many approaches that could foster more moderate and sustainable digital practices. Based on the Sustainable Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) literature, this paper shows an overall lack of environmental concerns in settings design,identifying six pervasive anti-patterns

💼 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.

Farmxic UK Limited - Multiple - 28000 - 35000 - Contract - Flexible - remote ok

At FarmXic UK Limited, we're building AI-powered tools that help farmers adapt to climate change while reducing the environmental footprint of food production.

Agriculture accounts for a significant share of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet farmers often lack access to real-time, data-driven tools to optimise soil health, water use, nutrient management, and climate resilience. Our flagship platform, SoilSense AI, combines environmental sensing, predictive analytics, and digital agronomy to help growers make better decisions that improve productivity while reducing resource waste and emissions.

By joining FarmXic, you're not just joining a startup—you're helping build digital infrastructure for climate-resilient agriculture and sustainable food systems, enabling farmers to produce more with fewer inputs and adapt to an increasingly unpredictable climate.

Farmxic UK Limited - 1 position - 28000 - 35000 - Contract - Flexible - remote ok

At FarmXic UK Limited, we're building AI-powered tools that help farmers adapt to climate change while reducing the environmental footprint of food production.

Agriculture accounts for a significant share of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet farmers often lack access to real-time, data-driven tools to optimise soil health, water use, nutrient management, and climate resilience. Our flagship platform, SoilSense AI, combines environmental sensing, predictive analytics, and digital agronomy to help growers make better decisions that improve productivity while reducing resource waste and emissions.

By joining FarmXic, you're not just joining a startup—you're helping build digital infrastructure for climate-resilient agriculture and sustainable food systems, enabling farmers to produce more with fewer inputs and adapt to an increasingly unpredictable climate.

Sphere - Head of Engineering and Security - $185-$200k plus equity and full benefits - Permanent - Totally remote

At Sphere we make it easy for everyone to invest in a climate-friendly way, even in their 401(k)s. This person will lead the buildout of our AtmoSphere Portal, where customers can login to manage their investments and see the climate impact they're making with their money. The ideal candidate has experience leading engineering security at a financial firm, has a background in back end development, and is passionate about bringing climate solutions to everyone everywhere. Learn more and apply here: https://oursphere.org/about-us/head-of-engineering-security

Green Screen Coalition - Program Assistant (mid-leve) - 300 – 450 EUR per day – depending on relevant experience. - Contract - Totally remote

We’re looking for a mid-level program assistant to work alongside the program co-leads to support the planning, implementation, and evaluation of these programs. The work would support a global community of activists, researchers, technologists, and artists to build bridges, and collectively develop agendas that centre people and the planet. This role is best suited to someone who is critical of the current extractive systems and wants to provide operational support to enable the network to chart a different path.

Support our work

You can support us financially on Open Collective.