🍂 SEPTEMBER 2023
Hi everyone,
As we head into a busy fall season, we hope everyone is feeling refreshed and ready to go! Teams are hard at work conducting research, advocating for policy change, convening stakeholders, and devising and implementing strategies that power CATF’s impactful work forward. CATF has been pedal to the metal this September, participating in two regional climate weeks, Africa Climate Week and New York Climate Week, plus producing loads of insightful content including four reports, five blogs and a fact sheet library this month alone. Take a look at the reports below – including one from the EU Advocacy and Clean Energy Infrastructure Deployment teams on how the EU can meet climate targets by transforming their planning and one from the Zero-Carbon Fuels team on the cost of hydrogen imports in CATF’s new digital-first report template.
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, HR, and Project Management News & Updates
Organizational Transformation
Armond shared updates on the organizational transformation process this month, including the creation of a Chief of Strategy role. See Armond's email from Monday, September 25 for more information.
Human Resources
New Staff This Month
❗Check out the staff directory! You can find your coworkers’ information by last name, team, or vertical.
Updates
Thanks for tuning in to our strategy update at September’s Watercooler! The slides will be accessible for future reference, but the main takeaways were:
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – The initial discovery phase of this journey is completed and we’re finalizing the priorities and action items for CATF to move forward in 2023 and 2024.
- Salary and Benefits Benchmarking – We’re currently working with a consultant to update our salary grading system and ensure positions are accurately aligned within the salary ranges. More to come on this in the next few months.
- CATF Paid Family and Medical Leave Policy – CATF is enacting a paid family and medical leave policy for staff! We’re excited to launch this benefit effective as of October 1.
Don’t forget to check your information listed in the Staff Directory and email [email protected] if updates are needed.
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.
COP Corner
Follow CATF as we bring our thought leadership and theory of change to the world’s largest climate stage. At COP28 in Dubai, CATF will disrupt the COP “business as usual” narrative by de-bunking myths about key technologies, centering the developing world, and collaborating with thought leaders from across the globe. Follow what we’re doing internally here, and stay tuned for the launch of our external-facing landing pages soon.
Project Management
CRM/Salesforce for Programs
We have officially wrapped our core system architecture and are in our testing phase. We had ~20 CATFers attend our User Acceptance Testing to help test the core system and identify bugs. The CRM Core Project Team continues to work on defining and documenting internal processes for using Salesforce.
Stay tuned for updates on training and the system launch!
Project Management Resources Library
Events & Meetings
What's Happening at CATF?
- 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.
Events Spotlight
Science of Siting
The Clean Energy Infrastructure Deployment team, in partnership with the University of Michigan, hosted the first of two Science of Siting workshops in Ann Arbor, MI. The workshops brought together a mix of 20 practitioners and academics to explore the efficacy of where and how siting decisions are made, and approaches to planning and community engagement that would best support just decision-making and accelerate renewable energy deployment. From these initial discussions, five groups will be further exploring topics around innovative policy frameworks, aspirational planning approaches, local structures and institutions, ownership models, and rural prosperity until they convene again in late October.
Would you like an event featured in Task Force Times? Email [email protected] with a description and photo.
Event Operations Updates
- COVID health and safety – With COVID numbers recently on the rise, this is a reminder of CATF’s guidance, available here, for events and meetings preparedness.
- Technology tools for events and meetings – what exists at CATF? Contact the Events team for more information on these infrastructure developments.
- Email invitations – CATF uses the email marketing software, Engaging Networks. This is the preferred, and best method, for sending invitations on behalf of CATF so that constituent data can be tracked in our system, the email can be professionally designed and formatted, and open and click rates can be tracked. See some examples here, and here, which can be custom personalized by sender and addressee for optimal open rates.
- RSVP/Registration tracking – Events team has built templates for RSVP/registration tracking in Microsoft Forms (all staff have access to Microsoft Forms as part of our Microsoft enterprise license). This is the preferred method so that sensitive constituent data can be collected in a secure, centralized place, under a CATF-managed platform, with proper consent language.
- Live surveying – The Events team has set up a basic account with Slido, in addition to the Microsoft Forms Present mode.
- Zoom Webinar and Zoom Meeting – The Events team has set up a centralized account for hosting virtual events. See more info in the Virtual Events Guide.
- Monday.com – The Events team has prebuilt project management templates available in Monday, which can be customized to scope and need.
- Looking Ahead – The Events team is exploring solutions for a robust registration platform to be embedded with the upcoming Salesforce constituent management system. Expect more information at the start of the new year.
Upcoming Events
⚠️ The events tracker has been moved to Monday.com! View it here.
- October 1-4: Geothermal Rising Conference (Reno, NV)
- October 2-5: ADIPEC (Abu Dhabi, UAE)
- October 4: ANS Webinar on International Perspectives on Nuclear Energy (Virtual)
- October 5: EU Industry Days (Malaga, Spain)
- October 5-6: GTI Energy CH4 Connections Conference (Fort Collins, Colorado)
- October 9-12: MENA Climate Week (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)
- October 9-10: Fusion Safety Workshop (London, UK)
- October 18: Society of Petroleum Engineers (San Antonio, TX)
- October 19: Beyond the Jargon: Nuclear Webinar (Virtual)
- October 23-27: Latin America and the Caribbean Climate Week (Panama City, Panama)
- October 23-24: Planning Workshop: Africa’s Energy and Climate Future (Nairobi, Kenya)
- October 25: Clean Energy: Many Pathways and Future Challenge (Rome, Italy)
- October 26-27: Forest Carbon Credit Protocol Assessment Analysis Workshop (Boston, MA)
- October 30 – November 1: International Solid Waste Association World Congress 2023 (Muscat, Oman)
Upcoming CATF Holidays
See here for the full holiday lists for all countries.
- Monday, October 9: Indigenous People's Day (U.S.); Independence of Guayaquil (Ecuador); Thanksgiving (Canada)
- Thursday, October 12: Spain National Day (Spain)
- Thursday, October 26: Austrian National Day (Austria)
Program & Regional Advocacy
Team Updates
Highlights
- The Zero-Carbon Fuels team released a major report, Techno-Economic Realities of Long-Distance Hydrogen Transport. The report analyzes the cost of hydrogen imports and provides policy recommendations for developing a cost-effective, low-carbon hydrogen economy in Europe. Check out the press release and accompanying blog.
- In a transatlantic effort, the European Advocacy and Clean Energy Infrastructure Deployment teams released a report, Bridging the Planning Gap: Transforming European NECPs to Deliver on Climate Targets. The report explores how the EU’s National Energy and Climate Plans can be used to address the “planning gap” and meet climate targets. Explore a summary version of the report, press release, and feature in The Guardian.
- The Methane Pollution Prevention team released a report highlighting the massive opportunity to cut methane emissions globally with an EU methane import standard. Read more in an accompanying blog and check out Brandon Locke talking about the need for a standard in a joint CATF-EURACTIV event on the EU Methane Regulation.
- The Carbon Capture Europe team hosted the first annual CCS Initiative at Imperial College London, which brought together media, policymakers, and academia to enhance general understanding of carbon capture technologies and their climate benefits. Nearly 30 participants with very little prior knowledge of carbon capture attended, including journalists from Euractiv and Politico Europe, leading think tanks in Poland and the Czech Republic, an assistant to a Member of the European Parliament, several UK NGOs, early-stage researchers at the University of Oxford, and a Member of the UK Parliament.
- A new library of fact sheets from the Carbon Capture team explores the carbon capture and storage landscape of European countries and details what is needed to deploy the critical technology within each region. These country level factsheets can act as guidance to national policymakers looking to engage with European CO2 capture targets. Check out the launch blog here.
- As part of the Carbon Capture team’s advocacy efforts around the Net Zero Industry Act, the team published a policy brief, Carbon Capture and Storage and the Net Zero Industry Act, along with an accompanying blog that details how the NZIA can unlock barriers to carbon capture and storage.
- CATF participated in both Africa Climate Week and New York Climate Week this month, with programming around the energy transition in Africa, methane pollution prevention, the role of states in infrastructure planning, carbon capture and storage in the U.S., and several internal meetings with stakeholders as the organization prepares for COP28.
All program & advocacy updates →
Full List of Publications This Month
Blogs
Press Statements
Fact Sheets
Reports
Comms Corner
New Digital Report Template
The Comms team has launched a new digital report template on the website for CATF reports and fact sheets! This new template makes it so significant long-form content no longer needs to be buried inside PDFs (although this option remains available). Not only does this make for a more attractive and interactive reading experience, it also means our research will be more accessible to readers on tablets and mobile devices, as well as – crucially – to the algorithms that feed Google’s search results.
Check it out here!
CATF in the News
- The Guardian featured CATF’s report on Europe’s National Energy and Climate Plans, with quotes from Alex Munoz and Nicole Pavia.
- Lily Odarno spoke with multiple media outlets on the impact of Africa Climate Week and how it can be improved to take on the complexities and realities of the continent, including in Al Jazeera, Climate Home News, The New Statesman, and Energy Monitor.
- Magnolia Tovar was quoted in multiple outlets on the release of the report, Techno-Economic Realities of Long-Distance Hydrogen Transport, including Carbon Pulse, Australia Financial Review, Oil and Gas Press, and Energy News Bulletin.
- An article from Newsweek covered the challenges in decarbonizing marine shipping with a quote from Jonathan Lewis.
- Armond Cohen joined leaders of the Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council in an op-ed for The Messenger on the importance of clean hydrogen production.
- Angela Seligman was quoted in Energy Intelligence on the need for community support and infrastructure for CO2 pipelines in the U.S.
- John Thompson highlighted the importance of the 45Q tax credit to carbon capture economics for an E&E story on the re-start of Petra Nova.
- Hayden Hashimoto commented on the EPA's landmark regulations on power plant emissions of mercury and other air toxics in E&E.
- Philip Ball authored an article on superhot rock energy for sustainable power generation for Geoscientist magazine.
View all press coverage →
Staff Pet Photo of the Month
Kendra, Methane Pollution Prevention’s U.S. Policy Manager, is pleased to introduce CATF to Phoebe, a very sassy 10-year-old cat. When she’s not begging for food, you can find her napping in the most inconvenient places (her favorites include laptops, heads, and anywhere you’re currently cleaning).
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!
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