✉️ February 2024

Hi everyone,

I appreciate your understanding and patience as CATF moves through this challenging period. I’ve gotten great feedback in the last few weeks, and there will be opportunities for much deeper staff engagement in the coming months as we figure out together how to steer CATF in the middle of its third decade. While the internal challenges are real, it’s important to remember how effective we are every day in delivering extraordinary impact on the world, evidenced by the variety and depth of the activities described in this newsletter. Let’s keep our eyes forward, and celebrate our accomplishments, even as we engage in reflection on what we can do better. 

Sincerely, 

Armond

If last month’s newsletter got lost in your inbox, you can find a copy here. And if you have any comments, questions, or feedback, please reach out to Kara Hunt.

HR, Development, and Project Management News & Updates

Human Resources

For a full list of current CATF staff, take a look at our staff directory. You can find your coworkers’ information by last name, team, or vertical.

Present Your Work!

Please sign up to present on your work at an all-staff watercooler! These presentations can range from overviews of your team’s work to deep dives into a specific solution, to an explanation of the policy landscape in a specific region, or anything else you think may be interesting to staff. They do not need to be long or formal. It’s all about sharing your expertise and work with the CATF community! The link to sign up can be found in the CATF Team General channel under the “Forms” tab, and please feel free to sign up well in advance of your planned presentation date.

Upcoming CATF Holidays

See here for the full holiday lists for all countries.

• Wednesday, March 6: Ghana Independence Day (Ghana) 
• Monday, March 18: Benito Juarez's Birthday (Mexico); Clean Monday (Greece) 
• Monday, March 25: Annunciation (Greece) 
• Thursday, March 28: Maundy Thursday (Norway) 
• Friday, March 29: Good Friday (Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Ghana, Nigeria, Norway, Spain, UK) 
• Monday, April 1: Easter Monday (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ghana, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, UK) 

Development

With recent staffing changes on the Development team, please direct all inquiries about grants and other foundation support to Harlan Cutshall. Harlan can also help field inquiries about major donors, development partnerships, and development events. 

Project Management

Given the recent restructuring, we are putting the CRM/Salesforce for Programs project on hold, including all pilot trainings. Please stay tuned for more information. Your patience is greatly appreciated! 

Events & Meetings

What's Happening at CATF? 

Find out more by viewing the 2024 Events Master Calendar

• Reminder: Please add your speaking engagement, sponsorship, exhibit, webinar, or CATF-hosted event or meeting to the calendar. All staff should have access. 
• To start planning a new event or meeting, please review the Intake Form and FAQ. 

Event Operations

While the organization moves towards finalizing budgets, please feel free to reach out to the Events team for guidance on securing venues for internal/team meetings. 

2023 Events Benchmark

CATF began benchmarking our events in 2023. Here are some fun facts about events at CATF from June – December, 2023:  

• We hosted 99 external events (both virtual and in-person) – 79 of those after September 1st. Fall is CATF’s busiest external events season!  
• Those events engaged more than 6,000 participants.  
• The Methane Pollution Prevention team hosted the greatest number of events as a strategic engagement with 11 recorded events in the second half of 2023.   
• Some of these events, like regional climate weeks and COP, contain multiple separate events under their umbrella. CATF delivered over 70 engagements at COP28 alone.  

Many thanks to all who have been recording your events in the Master Calendar. Your cooperation helps us better understand how CATF delivers mission impact. 

Upcoming Events

⚠️ The events tracker is on Monday.com! View it here.

• March 6: Be Waste Wise Webinar (Virtual)  
• March 6: KAUST geothermal event  
• March 18-22: CERAWeek (Houston, TX) 
• March 19: Carbon Gap’s launch of a Carbon Removal Strategy for Europe (Brussels, Belgium) 
• March 21: IAEA Nuclear Summit Side Event (Brussels, Belgium) 
• March 26-28: MIT + CATF Advanced Nuclear Energy Course (Prague, Czech Republic)  
• March 28: Veritas/Stanford NGI Meeting (Redwood City, CA) 
• March 29: CATF Q1 Board Meeting (TBD)

Program & Regional Advocacy
Team Updates

Highlights

• Building on the report, Bridging the Planning Gap, the European Advocacy team hosted an event with EU policymakers and national stakeholders to launch the thematic National Energy and Climate Plan playbooks, which aimed to empower national stakeholders across Europe to improve their updated NECPs and foster innovative approaches to swiftly and effectively meet climate EU targets. 
• Also in Europe, the EU Institutions put forth a series of important initiatives that could have major impacts on European and global climate efforts – many with influence and guidance from the European Advocacy team:  
  • Industrial Carbon Management Strategy: This strategy will enable the development and scale-up of carbon capture, removal, use, and storage technologies across the EU – and a result of CATF’s advocacy on the issue. Read more in a blog from Eadbhard Pernot, Toby Lockwood, and Codie Rossi.  
  • Net Zero Industry Act: European Parliament and EU Council found an agreement on the NZIA, with key measures to advance carbon capture and storage and the addition of nuclear energy in the list of clean technology options supported by the NZIA to tackle industrial emissions. CATF has called for strong measures to help boost the carbon capture industry in Europe, as well as for the inclusion of nuclear energy.  
  • 2040 EU Climate Targets: The EU Commission published its recommendations on the EU’s climate targets for 2040. These recommendations include core features CATF has long advocated for, including in our response to the public consultation, highlighting the roles CCS, hydrogen, nuclear, and geothermal will play in decarbonisation. And while ambitious, the non-binding communication lacks a blueprint for action. The team plans to continue its advocacy on the issue through its work on the National Energy and Climate Plans – a key opportunity to translate lofty climate ambitions into concrete steps leading up to 2030, 2040, and 2050. 
  • Small Modular Reactor Alliance: Announced by the EU Commission. The alliance will focus on enhancing industrial competitiveness and ensuring a strong EU supply chain and a skilled workforce, and reflects CATF’s call for investment in nuclear energy as a climate solution.  
  • Certification Framework for Carbon Removals: The EU institutions reached an agreement on a regulation establishing a Union Certification Framework for Carbon Removals (CRCF) and soil emission reductions, one of the final pieces of this term’s European Green Deal agenda. This voluntary EU-wide initiative is designed to validate carbon removals, carbon farming and soil emission reduction activities in the EU, ensuring they are high-quality, measurable, and align with the EU’s climate goals. 
• NEW! U.S. State Policy landing page outlines the efforts and impacts of CATF’s work in U.S. states.  
• Lesley Feldman and David McCabe published analysis on whether exported natural gas exhibits lower emissions than coal when used for power generation. Read the analysis, Lifecycle Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Natural Gas and Coal Powered Electricity and associated blog.  
• David Yellen, Rebecca Tremain, and Kasparas Spokas published thought leadership on what to expect from COP29, highlighting the importance of effective planning, financing, and implementation. 
• The Methane Pollution Prevention team published a guide to monitoring and quantifying methane emissions from the waste sector. 
• The Carbon Capture and Storage team released FAQs on carbon capture and storage in Europe.  
• The Land Systems team hosted its first event in its Land Systems Seminar Series, featuring Dr. Jennifer Pett-Ridge, lead author of the Lawrence Livermore Roads to Removal report. 
• The Methane Pollution Prevention team hosted workshops and participated in events to share best practices around reducing methane emissions:  
  • Workshops on leak detection and repair and the Country Methane Abatement Tool (CoMAT) in Nigeria. 
  • CoMAT workshop in Gabon, with coverage from Gabon’s national news channel. 
  • Annual CCAC conference in Nairobi, Kenya. 
  • Documenting methane emissions in Italy in partnership with Legambiente. 
  • Webinar to introduce WasteMAP, a tool from RMI and CATF to track and reduce waste methane emissions. 

All program & advocacy updates →

Full List of Publications This Month

Blogs

• A guide to monitoring and quantifying methane emissions from the waste sector – Kait Siegel, Theo Humann, Ioannis Binietoglou 
• A first look at the EU Industrial Carbon Management Strategy – Eadbhard Pernot, Toby Lockwood, Codie Rossi 
• The road to COP29: Finance, geopolitical uncertainty, and the need for a new global paradigm – David Yellen, Rebecca Tremain, Kasparas Spokas 
• Dual-use solar: U.S. policy considerations to drive clean energy deployment – Natalie Manitius and Nelson Falkenburg 
• CATF Analysis: Exported gas may or may not replace coal. Either way, it’s the emissions that count. – Lesley Feldman 
• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission can raise the bar on voluntary carbon credits – Frank Sturges and Rebecca Sanders-DeMott 

Press Statements

• CATF and CONCITO collaborate on new frontiers of emissions trading in the European Union 
• New 2040 EU Climate Targets provide a wish list, but no blueprint for action 
• Net Zero Industry Act: A crucial step forward for industrial decarbonisation in Europe 
• EU pushes forward climate action in Europe with Industrial Carbon Management Strategy 
• Environmental Protection Agency finalizes important update to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter 
• EU leaders secure provisional deal on pioneering Carbon Removals Certification Framework 
• DOE announces investment in renewable geothermal energy, including support for superhot rock energy 
• Germany takes a major step forward with the publication of the key points of its Carbon Management Strategy 

Reports

• Carbon Capture and Storage in Europe FAQs 
• Analysis of Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Natural Gas and Coal Powered Electricity

Policy Briefs

• Policy Brief: Earth Energy Innovation 
• Designing Carbon Contracts for Difference 

Comms Corner

2023 Comms Impact Report

Check out the 2023 communications and marketing impact report, highlighting our efforts from the last year to elevate CATF's strategic messaging and position ourselves as a unique and authoritative voice in the climate space. We continued to socialize CATF's theory of change, build and engage our audience, and elevate our thought leadership across all organic and paid media channels.

Adjustments to CATF’s Design Process

As of January 1, 2024, we have moved a large share of our creative design work in-house. Under our new system, the Comms team centrally manages design requests from across the organization and determines which projects CATF will execute on with our existing capacity and which are better suited for our retained external creative service provider, 5IVE. This change allows us to reduce the number of retained hours (i.e., reduce costs), collaborate more efficiently with requesting parties on outputs, improve tracking, and build in-house design capacity within the CATF Communications team. Please see Troy’s email from February 22 for further details, and a few helpful links are below:  

• Project Request Form 
• Content Guide 
• General Timing Guidelines 

CATF in the News

• Sam Bailey spoke with Joshua Raulerson on Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s Pennsylvania Legacies podcast to discuss the potential for hydrogen in the energy transition, and what it will take to ensure it is climate beneficial.  
• In an interview to Rai News, Théo Humann discussed Italy’s track record of the most methane leaks, as well as CATF’s work documenting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector across Europe.  
• Ben Grove highlighted the potential of carbon capture and storage in the Gulf Coast region in an interview with Canary Media.  
• In an op-ed for Euractiv, Eadbhard Pernot joined Mark Preston from Bellona Europa and Fabiola De Simone from Carbon Market Watch on the need for separate targets in the EU’s 2040 climate strategy.  
• Emily Kent was quoted in Canary Media on utilities shifting to clean hydrogen, and what’s needed to ensure emissions reductions.  
• Hayden Hashimoto provided comments in Courthouse News Service on the Supreme Court hearing on the ‘Good Neighbor’ air pollution rule.

View all press coverage →

Staff Pet Photo of the Month

Sushi belongs to Alex Carr, Program Manager on the Zero-Carbon Fuels team. He is 2.5-year-old male, adopted as a kitten after he was found in a bush in a village north of Prague. He lives a very chilled suburban life nowadays, consisting mostly of naps (you may spot him sleeping on the printer or desk behind me on a call), lying anywhere stretched out on his back, or birdwatching from the office or balcony. His favorite games are playing fetch and chasing shadows on the wall. His favorite food is brioche. 

If you have a pet you’d be willing to share, please submit a pet photo for the newsletter! You can do so by filling out this Teams Form.

That’s all for this month. If you made it this far — thanks for reading!