🌈 JUNE 2023

Hi everyone,

Happy (belated) Pride Month! We hope everyone’s summer is off to a great start and you have some well-deserved vacation time planned. CATF has been as busy as ever this month, with three new reports – one from the EU and U.S. Advocacy teams on key learnings from recent U.S. policy for EU policymakers, another from our Energy and Climate Innovation in Africa program on energy transition research in Africa, and a report from the Methane Pollution Prevention team on the barriers and solutions to scaling-up financing for methane mitigation.

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.

Leadership, Ops, HR, and
IT News & Updates

Human Resources

New Staff This Month

❗Check out the NEW 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 free to sign up well in advance of your planned presentation date.

Operations

• Boston Office — How to reserve space
• D.C. Office — How to reserve space
• Don't forget to add your time off to the Out of Office calendar. Instructions can be found here.

Finance & Accounting

• Marketing — All marketing product requests should go through Purchasing (business cards, printed and branded materials, etc.)
• Big Ticket Equipment Purchases — All equipment to be used globally should be purchased and shipped to the Boston office first! A CATF Purchasing/Operations representative will then secure a CARNET form to ship them out for global use. Please copy [email protected] and [email protected] on all purchasing communications.
• Credit Card Purchasing Documentation — Please include detailed comments in the “Comments” field in SAP Concur. If additional descriptions are needed for credit card purchases use the “Additional Comments” field and upload your invoice/receipt into Concur.
• Also, feel free to review our Accounting Team profiles if you have any questions about who to contact for specific issues.

IT

• Endpoint Management — Moving into July, we will be releasing endpoint management for Windows. Expect an email by mid-July identifying the changes we will be making and installation instructions for the management agent. Once this is completed, we will be moving forward with MacOS management.
• Scott Do is working on a new IT Knowledge Base using Sharepoint. We look forward to sharing this with users to gather feedback and iterate to make it a suitable place to gather information centrally concerning all things IT.
• Email list cleanup is continuing on a team-by-team basis. We will be reaching out to your team soon with a worksheet of the existing lists we associate with your team and our proposed changes to apply naming conventions and clarify expected usage of email lists. You can see the current master list here. Expect to see this updated as we move across the organization.

Project Management Team

• External Contact Directory (CRM)/Salesforce – Adopting Salesforce will provide CATF with a database for tracking all things related to external contacts and relationships. We are currently in the platform build-out phase of the project. Key areas we are considering as we build out the platform include integrations with our other software, customizing list views and reports, organizational processes and procedures for data entry and contact management, and change management. We will continue to work with our consultant partner, Zuri Group, to solicit input from staff who volunteered to take part in discovery and feedback sessions. If you’d like to participate, please reach out to Lindsey Popken.
• PM Resources – Check out our Project Management Resource Library in CATF General for resources that might be helpful for you. We have meeting agendas, notes and follow-up templates, with examples from other CATF teams! Our latest additions include guidance on best practices for project charters and project initiation.
• Monday.com – By now, most teams have completed their onboarding training. Our advanced training series, Monday.com University, is underway. We’ve completed the “Monday 110” refresher course. If you’d like to join an advanced training designed for power users/team champions, please email us.

View all organizational updates →

Events & Meetings

Where is CATF in July? Highlights from our Events

Find out more by viewing the 2023 Events Master Calendar

• The Hydrogen Hubs team kicks off their regional convening with a series of virtual and face-to-face workshops in California, the Midwest, the U.S. Gulf Coast, and Appalachia. Their agenda spans technical education, testing attitudes from regional energy stakeholders, and inclusion of diverse perspectives.
• The Climate Equity Initiative will release its new report in a series of invite-only webinars. The report spans awareness and perceptions around environmental and health impacts as well as economic opportunities presented by clean energy. It also covers civic engagement, trust, and access to information as well as accessibility barriers.
• The U.S. Advocacy and Carbon Capture teams educate bipartisan policy leaders alongside partners at ClearPath at the National Press Club on July 19 at “America’s Next Revolution: Clean Industrial.”

CATF All-Staff Retreat

CATF is going to Montreal! Get ready for learning, connection, and adventure in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in North America. Canada’s second-largest city is a vibrant cultural hub and the capital of French Canada.

Please see Marge Anderson's email from June 30 for more information. 

Coming in July

• An orientation to the new Event Intake Form prepared by the Events team in partnership with CATF's Executive Administrators and how it can help your program create better meetings and secure cost-effective pricing.
• A Virtual Events Best Practices Guide prepared in partnership between the Events Team and IT. How to get started, how we can help, and how subject-matter experts can leave the technical details to others so they can focus on relationships and content. Mary Louks will be launching this in July with C.J. Von Buchwald-Wright and Scott Do.
• Announcement of CATF’s COP28 Delegation as well as travel guidance. COP28 is November 30 – December 12, 2023, in Dubai, UAE.

A reminder from the Events Team to complete the new Event Design Intake Form when you’re planning a meeting. While we encourage a minimum of 12 weeks lead time, we are now beginning to talk to some programs about their 2024 events. It’s never too early. Please send to Marge Anderson and Mary Louks.

Upcoming Events

⚠️ The events tracker has been moved to Monday.com! View it here.

• July 11: Perspectives from environmental justice communities: A national survey (Virtual)
• July 13: Transforming funding flows to environmental justice communities (Virtual)
• July 13: Hydrogen 101 in the Midwest (Virtual)
• July 18: Hydrogen Hubs in Appalachia (West Virginia)
• July 19: America’s Next Revolution: Clean Industrial (Washington, D.C.)
• July 20: The power of data, knowledge, and information to support environmental justice communities (Virtual)
• July TBD: Zero-Emission Vehicles: Infrastructure Planning for HDVs in California (Virtual)
• July TBD: Hydrogen Hubs in the Gulf Coast (Virtual)

Upcoming CATF Holidays

See here for the full holiday lists for all countries.

• Tuesday, July 4: U.S. Independence Day (U.S.)
• Wednesday, July 5: Saint Cyril and Methodius Day (Czech Republic)
• Thursday, July 6: Jan Hus Day (Czech Republic)
• Friday, July 14: Bastille Day (France)
• Wednesday, July 19: Islamic New Year (UAE)
• Friday, July 21: Belgium National Day (Belgium)

Program & Regional Advocacy
Team Updates

Highlights

• It’s hard hat season for the Carbon Capture team!
  • Toby Lockwood and Eliza Sheff participated in a Great Plains Institute-led delegation where they toured the Brevik cement plant in Norway – set to become the world’s first commercial cement plant with carbon capture and storage – and joined in briefings and discussions with developers, industry, and government agencies.
  • Codie Rossi took part in a roundtable discussion on fermentation carbon capture at Pannonia Bio’s Bioirefinery in Hungary, where the company presented its project plans to capture and permanently store 500,000 tonnes of CO2 from its ethanol production process.
• New webpages! Check out our recently launched webpages on the CATF website highlighting our work in Europe, Clean Energy Infrastructure Deployment, and Waste Sector Methane.
• The Energy and Climate Innovation in Africa program released a new report that found energy transition research focused on Africa fails to capture the realities of the region.
• The Methane Pollution Prevention team released a new report on methane financing, identifying the barriers and solutions to scaling-up funding for methane mitigation and laying out recommendations for funders and recipients.
• Sonia Stoyanova, Lee Beck, and John Thompson released a brief cutting through the noise of the Inflation Reduction Act. The paper assesses how the U.S. policy approach promotes multiple technologies to increase decarbonization options and provides important learnings for European policymakers.
• Litigation Director Jay Duffy testified during an EPA public hearing on its latest proposal to curb carbon pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants, applauding the standards and providing three recommendations on how the rule can be strengthened to further protect public health and the environment.
• The Methane Pollution Prevention team co-hosted a workshop with Argentina’s Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible and IAPG on the methane emissions landscape in the oil and gas sector, with case studies from Argentina.
• Zero-Carbon Fuels team members Magnolia Tovar, Alex Carr, Gus Wakim, and Hagan Han participated in the ARC Festival this month, participating in two panels – one that emphasized the risk of deploying hydrogen in regret sectors like power generation and light-duty transport, and another that focused on the climate impact of contrails and mitigation opportunities for this underemphasized area of aviation.
• Superhot Rock Energy Program Director Terra Rogers participated in a ThinkGeoEnergy webinar discussing why CATF is exploring the potential of superhot rock energy and how it could support rapid global decarbonization as a source of zero-carbon, always-on power.
• The Land and Climate team held a pair of workshops with academic experts in forest carbon cycle science to frame our ongoing assessment of voluntary markets and the North American compliance market forest carbon credit protocols.

All program & advocacy updates →

Full List of Publications This Month

Reports, Papers, & Fact Sheets

• Barriers and Solutions to Scaling-Up Methane Finance (Report)
• Global Waste Sector Methane (Fact Sheet)
• Designing a Business Case for Climate Technology in Europe (Paper)
• Climate Change and Economic Development in Africa (Report)
• A Vision for Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage in the EU (Report)

Blogs

• A new partnership: Tackling methane emissions from waste in Naucalpan de Juarez, Mexico — Kait Siegel, Paula Garcia Holley, Joshua Flores
• U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard: Challenges and opportunities on the path to decarbonizing the transportation sector — Stephanie Herbstritt, Jonathan Lewis, Kathy Fallon, Mary Sasso
• Are Africa’s needs overlooked in energy transitions research? — Prudence Dato
• Hubs and spokes: Extending the reach of hydrogen hubs through clean transportation corridors — Anna Menke, Johnathan Lewis

Press Statements

• Key changes needed to fix funding ecosystem for global methane mitigation, finds CATF report
• Cutting through the noise on the Inflation Reduction Act: Key learnings for climate technology in Europe

Letters, Comments, and Testimonies

• Clean Air Task Force comments on the Bureau of Land Management’s Proposed Rule on wasteful flaring and venting of gas
• Clean Air Task Force comments on EPA’s Proposed Residual Risk and Technology Review for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards

Comms Corner

CATF in the News

• Bloomberg featured CATF’s latest report on methane finance, which found that funding to cut methane emissions falls woefully short of what is needed.
• CATF hosted an insider briefing on the new paper, Designing a Business Case for Climate Technology in Europe, with attendees from Politico EU, Financial Times, Carbon Pulse, EU Observer, Reuters, EURACTIV, Cipher News, and more.
• Thomas Walker appeared on BBC World Service this month, discussing the potential of hydrogen in the transportation sector.
• David McCabe highlighted the need to account for methane emissions in blue hydrogen production in an article from the Houston Chronicle.
• CATF’s report benchmarking methane emissions from the U.S. oil and gas sector was featured in Bloomberg.
• Reuters included a quote from Lee Beck on a new communication from the European Commission, where she emphasized the need to expand climate change policies.
• Jonathan Banks was quoted in E&E coverage of the U.S./Turkmenistan methane agreement.
• CATF continues to be quoted in media on EPA’s proposed carbon pollutions standards for the power sector, including John Thompson in E&E News this month.

View all press coverage →

Communications Updates & Reminders

Check Out Our Shared Resources!

Looking for a Zoom background with the CATF logo? Check out the options in this folder! If you’re ever looking for a CATF logo file, PowerPoint template, branded letterhead, or key messaging doc, be sure to check out the Communications folder in our shared CATF files.

If you are working on a product that will require design through 5IVE (CATF’s creative and branding agency), please submit requests through the project request form a minimum of three business days (and ideally two weeks or more) in advance of your deadline and include a link to the Word or PDF document with finalized content. This includes reports, fact sheets, and slide decks.

Please also factor design time and a few rounds of reviews into your target release date for the product! 

Staff Pet Photo of the Month

Ruth belongs to U.S. Policy Communications Manager Samantha Sadowski and is a 3-year-old mini long-haired dachshund who doesn't let her short legs stop her. She loves doing anything outside — long walks, playing in the snow, and patio-sitting are some of her favorites!

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!